ABUSE TRACKER

A Kansas City Assemblies of God pastor has been placed on leave and resigned from a local school board as police are investigating sexual misconduct and grooming allegations made against him, including one by a woman who says she was a child at the time. 

Epic Church KC announced Thursday that its board of directors has independently placed Lead Pastor Bobby Hawk on administrative leave pending further review of the allegations made against him in recent days. Bobby and Vanessa Hawk planted the church in 2009. 

The church has campuses in Independence, Missouri, and Pontiac, Michigan, and also operates the EPIC Center KC.

“Our board of directors has been working diligently for the past 36 hours since allegations were made against our Lead Pastor Bobby Hawk,” the announcement reads, adding that church staff have been instructed not to engage on social media or with the news media as…

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Justice must be seen to be done, and that is the case with both Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò and Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò was summoned to appear at the Vatican on Thursday, to face charges of schism.

The former papal diplomat and consummate Vatican Insider-turned-conspiracy-theorist almost triumphantly announced the development over social media. Official media channels of the Vatican later picked up Viganò’s announcement.

A lot of what Viganò has said and done over the past several years has been utterly unhinged, but being looney-tunes is not eo ipso a crime. It is difficult to fathom, however, how some of what he has done wasn’t criminal according to Church law.

Viganò has repeatedly expressed doubt that Francis is the legitimate pope. He has said the Vatican Council II taught heresy (at least in nuce). Viganò has been accused of illicitly ordaining at least one priest—certainly a crime and an act reeking of…

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Dear Attorney General Bailey,

To help kids who are at risk of abuse now and adults who’ve already been abused, we’ve repeatedly asked you to take a few simple steps.

Three of them you repeatedly ignore. The fourth you claim you can’t do. (We’re adding a fifth today.)

Frankly, we’re insulted and frustrated by your unwillingness to even seriously entertain our very reasonable requests.

But our feelings are secondary. The safety of children is, of course, what matters most. And in our view, you are refusing to do your civic and moral duty to protect boys and girls from unscrupulous, untrained and abusive staff at dozens of essentially unregulated, controversial, ‘under the radar’ purportedly Christian boarding schools.

Fundamentally, we believe that ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ We strongly believe you can do more than you’re doing now. And we know that it’s wrong of you passively and timidly sit back,…

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Friday was a very bad day for Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, but Ruffini ought not to be the sole or even the primary focus of attention.

The Vatican communications chief, Dr. Paolo Ruffini, faces mounting criticism from voices across the spectrum of opinion in the Church after he defended—on Friday, at the premier Catholic media event of the year in the United States—the use of digital and other reproductions of artwork by the accused serial rapist, Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik.

A worldwide public scandal

You may not have heard Rupnik’s name, but if you are a Catholic who has darkened the door of a church in the past decade, you’ve seen his work. He designed the logo for the Year of Mercy. Rupnik’s Centro Aletti studio has an interactive catalog showing where Rupnik pieces and installations are in the world.

Rupnik is accused of sexually, psychologically, and…

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Gov. Ron DeSantis Friday OK’d a process for hundreds of elderly men known as the White House Boys to apply for reparations for beatings and rapes they endured as children while in state custody.  

The governor signed the Dozier School for Boys and Okeechobee School Victim Compensation bill (HB 21), according to state Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, one of the bill’s backers.

The measure provides $20 million to distribute among an estimated 400 survivors for “physical, mental, or sexual abuse” that occurred between 1940 and 1975 at the two facilities that have since been closed.

“I want to thank the governor and the Senate and House leadership for (bringing) closure in a small way to these men who’ve been coming to Tallahassee for decades, telling their stories,” Rouson said in a phone interview on Friday.

“Money will never compensate them for the actual harm…

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Dover DE – Survivors of child sexual abuse who were previously barred from filing lawsuits due to the expiration of the former civil statute of limitations may soon be able to seek damages under new legislation.

House Bill 417, introduced by Laurel-area state Rep. Tim Dukes, would permit affected individuals to file claims in Superior Court at any time. This proposed legislation revisits the Child Victims Act enacted in 2007, which eliminated the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse legal claims going forward and allowed a two-year window for retroactive lawsuits.

Rep. Dukes says he sponsored the bill after a constituent reached out, explaining that they had been sexually abused as a child but were unable to seek civil damages because they missed the two-year filing period. Dukes says while the Child Victims Act allowed claims for some survivors, it excluded those abused as children in the 1990s and…

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The prefect of the Dicastery for Communication argued that destroying the works of the mosaic artist accused of multiple rapes and coercion was not a “Christian response.” In Rome and the Vatican, more than 40 places are adorned with mosaics by the former Jesuit.

The prefect for the Dicastery for Communications has argued against removing mosaics created by Marko Rupnik, the former Jesuit artist who is accused of numerous allegations of sexual abuse and abuse of power. 

During the Catholic Media Association’s annual conference held in Atlanta, in the southeastern United States June 21, Paolo Ruffini, the prefect, attended as a guest speaker and was questioned about the Vatican’s official websites’ regular use of Rupnik’s mosaics.

The Slovenian mosaic artist, well-known in the Catholic world, was expelled from his order, the Society of Jesus, in July 2023 amid numerous complaints from women accusing him of rape, molestation, and coercion, all…

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Gerard Gorman faced unimaginable horror as an 11-year-old boarder in County Armagh. The pain haunted him for decades – then he took on the church

It was November 1970 and Northern Ireland was sliding into the Troubles, but for Gerard Gorman, a new pupil at St Colman’s College, the horror of that era began when Fr Malachy Finegan summoned him into a room, closed the door and told him to sit on a sofa.

Gorman was 11 years old and small for his age, with big blue eyes. Two months earlier, he had started as a boarder at the Catholic boys’ school in Newry, County Armagh. Staff tended to be aloof or intimidating, except Finegan, the religious education teacher, who was solicitous and avuncular.

More than half a century later, Gorman can still picture the scene on that autumn day. He had been with other boys, running to the dormitory, when Finegan beckoned…

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Known as the Two by Twos (2×2) or The Church with No Name, ministers travel in pairs to member homes to spread the gospel. But now, disturbing allegations are coming to light.

Disturbing allegations of child sex abuse within a secretive religious sect of Christianity are being brought to light after several former members came forward to share their stories.

The sect is known as the Two by Twos (2×2) or The Church with No Name, and its ministers – who are called “workers” — travel in pairs from home to home of church members to spread the gospel.

But a recent year-long investigation conducted by ABC News, which aired on the season finale of IMPACT by Nightline, revealed that hundreds of people in the religious organization were sexually abused as children.

The allegations are so widespread that the FBI has started an investigation into the church, it…

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On the final day of the Catholic Media Conference in Atlanta, the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication addressed questions posed by journalists about the dicastery’s regular practice of posting art by Fr. Marko Rupnik — a Rome-based priest accused of sexually abusing multiple women — on the Vatican News website and social media, especially to illustrate church feast days.

“As Christian(s), we are asked not to judge,” Paolo Ruffini said to a room full of communications professionals after giving an address at the CMC June 21. He explained that while the process of a Vatican investigation into Rupnik is still ongoing, “an anticipation of a decision is something that is not, in our opinion, is not good.”

“There are things we don’t understand,” he said. Ruffini also added they “did not put in any new photos” of Father Rupnik’s art, but rather have been using what they had….

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Court documents filed to the Rapides Parish Clerk of Court on, June 11, indicate that the Diocese of Alexandria faces a civil suit for damages caused by a former priest in the 1970s.

The accuser claimed that they were sexually abused as a minor by a priest employed at the Diocese of Alexandria, identified as Father Edmund Gagné.

Father Gagné was among those named by the Diocese of Alexandria in 2019 as having been accused of sexual misconduct and abuse of minors. According to BishopAccountability, Father Gagné was ordained in 1971 and was assigned to a church in Marksville for two months in 1974. He then transferred to Houston, TX, and was removed from public ministry in 1986. Father Gagné reportedly died in 1990.

The accuser alleges that while serving as an altar boy at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in 1971 and 1972, they were…

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The now elderly man left teaching for the priesthood and served up to recently in a busy parish in the archdiocese of Dublin

A TEACHER-turned-priest is being investigated by An Garda Siochana following historic sex abuse allegations being made against him from his time teaching in Limerick, the Leader has learned.

The alleged offences date back some 40 years when he was working in a school in the city.

The now elderly man left teaching for the priesthood and served up to recently in a busy parish in the archdiocese of Dublin.

A garda spokesperson said: “Gardaí in Limerick have received a number of complaints of historical abuse by a male, alleged to have occurred in the 1970s and 1980s.”

As this is an ongoing investigation, the spokesperson said An Garda Síochána is not providing any further comment.

The Limerick Leader / Limerick Live also contacted the Archdiocese of Dublin…

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A Catholic priest, formerly with the Fall River Diocese, was found not guilty on multiple rape charges in Barnstable Superior Court.

According to the Cape Cod Times, Mark Hession was found not guilty Friday on two counts of rape that allegedly occurred between 2005 and 2008.

There was a mistrial on one count of indecent assault and battery on a child less than 14 that allegedly took place in 2002.

Hession’s attorney stated that the prosecution’s case was based on faulty testimony from an uncredible witness.

The Cape Cod Times stated that a 36-year-old man testified that he was sexually abused in 2002 while working on a science class project at the church. 

According to a list of clergy accused of child sexual abuse that was previously issued by the Fall River Diocese, Hession has served at St. Patrick Parish in Wareham, St. Joan of Arc in Orleans, Holy Name…

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Jim Gregory and Mark Rozzi may not see their efforts pay off before departing the Legislature.

After a 2011 grand jury investigation revealed the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia had covered up the sexual abuse of dozens of young parishioners by priests, lawmakers in Harrisburg took steps to give those who remained silent about their victimization a shot at justice.

More than 13 years later, survivors are still waiting.

Two members of the state legislature, Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks) and Rep. Jim Gregory (R-Blair/Huntingdon), are among survivors of child sexual abuse. They have pushed for legislation which would give adult survivors a two-year window to sue their childhood abusers.

But both will leave the General Assembly later this year, likely before the goal comes to fruition.

Rozzi is retiring to focus on his mental health. Gregory lost his May primary. And with budget negotiations a seeming final opportunity to seek a…

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Predators are quite good at targeting and preying on churches because churches are easy targets. Unfortunately, religious organizations are less effective in stopping predators in the church. That we know. So, what can Christian churches do?

Catholics have been dealing – or not dealing – with sexual abuse of children for decades. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is taking its time finding solutions to its scandal, which is more about men attacking women than child abuse. And the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) is dealing with its own scandal, which is smaller but equally ugly.

Sexual abuse seems rampant in the church. It makes one wonder about how Christians go about stopping predators in the church.

Are Churches Enabling Sex Abusers?

Are churches enablers? The question is akin to asking whether a rape victim is enabling the rapist. But hear me out… or rather read what an expert says.

Nate…

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The head of the Vatican’s communications department is defending his office’s use of an accused sexual abuser’s art on its website.

The Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See, Italian layman Paolo Ruffini, offered his defense on Friday, June 21st, in response to questions from journalists attending his keynote address at the annual Catholic Media Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

“We did not put any new photos,” Ruffini said, “we just left what [images] there were.”

“I think this is the reason,” Ruffini said. “We didn’t decide what—what wasn’t in our charge to decide.”

The artist in question is  ex-Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, who has been accused of abusing scores of victims—most of them women religious—over several decades, much of which he spent in Rome at the Centro Aletti art institute he founded in the early 1990s.

“We’re not talking about abuse of minors,” Ruffini told a room of roughly…

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Melanie Sakoda is an important figure in cataloguing the crimes of the Easter Orthodox Church. What is happening in Orthodoxy?

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Today, we are here with Melanie Sakoda. She is a long-time – some like the term activist, some like someone working for a morally correct cause. You had a lot more time to reflect on the work on this issue. My first question: How did you originally get involved in this work? Because you have been doing this for decades.

Melanie Sakoda: We had an incident in our Church in San Francisco where there was a layman who was a child abuser with multiple convictions. They were allowing him free rein in our parish. Many children got hurt, as far as we can tell. That started it. The reaction when the families came forward was such a backlash. We thought, “Oh my goodness, we are complaining about someone who…

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The Belgian Catholic Church has announced it is opening an online survey to hear from clerical abuse victims, as the religious organisation considers how to implement recommendations recently made by government inquiries into sexual abuse.

The survey will also gauge interest from victims in meeting Pope Francis when he visits Belgium in September of this year.

A documentary aired in September of last year by Flemish national broadcaster VRT, Godvergeten (which roughly translates to ‘Godforsaken’), sent shockwaves through the Flanders community and gave voice to victims of abuse perpetrated by religious figures within parish, school and family settings.

It shone a fresh light on historic abuses within the Belgian Catholic Church, and led to both the Federal and Flemish parliaments establishing separate committees of inquiry. Both parliaments published their final reports in May of this year, each making at least 100 recommendations on how to address child abuse…

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National Catholic Reporter, Global Sisters Report and EarthBeat won 44 honors in 33 categories at the 2024 Catholic Media Awards, including a first place for Global Sisters Report’s Spanish language edition in the best Spanish-language website category and second place for NCR for best national newspaper. NCR swept the “best investigative news writing” category, with Brian Fraga winning first and third place and Katie Collins Scott getting a second-place award. NCR also won first place for best editorial on a national or international issue and first place for a column by Michael Sean Winters. EarthBeat won in several categories, including first place for electronic newsletter.

GSR international correspondent Chris Herlinger and Latin America correspondent Rhina Guidos were honored with second place and honorable mention, respectively, as writers of the year. GSR’s signature series, “Hope Amid Turmoil: Sisters in Conflict Areas,” was recognized with three…

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Before evangelical leaders say a word about the upcoming election, abortion policy or drag queens, they must look at why sexual abuse is occurring in congregations.

An epidemic of sexual abuse involving evangelical church leaders is hurting victims across the country. Even worse, churches far too often have covered up the abuse.

While the evangelical church is not a monolith and all churches should not be blamed for the failures of some, there is a pattern of abuse in a number of churches going back years, even decades.

I’m an evangelical who has attended evangelical churches my whole life. Before evangelical leaders say a word about the upcoming election, abortion policy or drag queens, they must look at why and how this is happening − for the sake of victims and for the health of the church.

Robert Morris steps down amid abuse allegations

The most recent…

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“We’re not talking about abuse of minors,” said Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See, on Friday, 21st June 2024, in response to questions after an address given at the annual Catholic Media Conference.

The Vatican’s chief comms officer on Friday defended his department’s use of an accused serial rapist’s art.

“We’re not talking about abuse of minors,” said Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See, on Friday, 21st June 2024, in response to questions from journalists gathered in the Heritage Ballroom of the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead and Conference Center.

Ruffini was there to deliver the keynote address on the last day of the annual Catholic Media Conference and had opened the floor to queries, two of which came from Colleen Dulle of America Magazine and Paulina Guzik of OSVNews.

The…

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Children with psychological or intellectual disabilities and people who are deaf, blind or autistic are up to five times more likely to suffer abuse.

Safeguarding experts and abuse survivors met at the Gregorian University this week to address clerical abuse of disabled individuals, shedding light on the scope and challenges of this often unaddressed reality.

People living with psychological and physical disabilities are disproportionately more likely to become victims of physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Disabled children are 3.1 times more likely to be sexually abused and 3.9 times more likely to be emotionally abused, according to The Safeguarding Company.

Children with psychological or intellectual disabilities and people who are deaf, blind or autistic are up to 5 times more likely to suffer abuse.

The team of 350 experts in safeguarding and abuse prevention from 55 countries met June 18-21 for the annual International Safeguarding Conference organized by the Institute…

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Global experts said at a conference that the Catholic Church must prioritize safeguarding efforts for disabled persons, addressing biased beliefs and structural barriers to better integrate and protect them within the community.

To prevent abuse across the board, the Catholic Church must place disabled persons at the center of its safeguarding efforts and ministry, speakers said at an international safeguarding conference in Rome.

Hosted by the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Institute of Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care, the June 18-21 conference brought global experts to Rome to discuss the relationship between safeguarding and disability.

During the conference, Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, president of the institute, told Catholic News Service that the theme for this year’s edition of the conference was selected to bridge the gap that exists between safeguarding — referring to practices meant to address and prevent emotional, physical and sexual abuse — and caring for people…

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The 2024 Catholic Media Conference ended in Atlanta on a significantly sour note when Dr. Paolo Ruffini, the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, relentlessly defended the use and preservation of the art of the Jesuit priest and artist Marko Rupnik, despite repeated questions and objections from the audience composed mostly of Catholic journalists from the U.S. and Canada.

On Friday, June 21, Ruffini delivered the closing noon keynote conference at the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead & Conference Center, addressing uncontroversial issues regarding the importance of reaching out to a universal audience.

But it was during the following Q&A session when attending journalists focused most of their concerns and comments on what OSV News editor Paulina Guzik described as “the dicastery’s regular practice of posting art by Father Marko Rupnik — a Rome-based priest accused of sexually abusing multiple women — on the Vatican News website…

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The prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication told a group of Catholic journalists Friday that removing artwork by disgraced religious artist and alleged serial sexual abuser Fr. Marko Rupnik is “not the Christian response.”

“I don’t think we have to throw stones, thinking it is the way of healing someone,” said Paolo Ruffini, according to video footage of his remarks obtained by The Pillar. “The Christian faith is saying other things. Jesus said other things.”

Ruffini, who since 2018 has headed the Vatican communications department, spoke at a Catholic Media Conference gathering in Atlanta on June 21.

During a Q-and-A session after his talk, Ruffini was asked why his dicastery’s website continues to use Rupnik’s artwork. He was also asked what message he would like to give abuse victims.

Ruffini claimed that the Church’s closeness to victims “is clear,” but that it is necessary to wait for the Dicastery for…

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Attorneys say that despite the Archdiocese determining in 1993 Fr. Keehan had “credible” allegations of child sexual abuse, he was allowed to remain as head pastor and regularly sexually abused students

Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley, PLLC, and Levy Konigsberg, LLP announce the filing of another lawsuit on behalf of a fourth St. Ann’s student alleging sexual abuse against the Catholic Bishop of Chicago (aka the Archdiocese of Chicago) surrounding Fr. Keehan’s tenure at St. Ann’s Elementary School and Parish in Chicago. The complaint outlines Fr. Keehan’s extensive history of abusing minors, which began in 1967, shortly after his ordination. In 1993, the Archdiocese’s Professional Fitness Review Board determined that there was at least one “credible” allegation of child sexual abuse involving Fr. Keehan, and concluded he posed too significant a danger to ever be left alone with any minors. Despite this finding, the Archdiocese allowed Fr. Keehan to continue…

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A priest in Tennessee already facing multiple sexual abuse charges has been served with two additional battery charges this month, police have revealed. 

A grand jury earlier this month returned a superseding indictment against Father Juan Carlos Garcia-Mendoza, charging him with two additional counts of sexual battery, according to a press release from the Franklin, Tennessee, Police Department. 

In February, Garcia was indicted on eight other charges, including continuous abuse of a child, aggravated sexual battery, four counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, and two counts of sexual battery.

The priest is being held in jail in Williamson County, Tennessee, on $2 million bond, the police said. He had previously served at St. Philip Catholic Church in the town of Franklin.

The Diocese of Nashville had said in a press release in January that it first learned of accusations against Garcia in November…

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Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has been summoned to the Vatican on charges of schism, according to a statement released by Vatican-based US journalist Robert Moynihan.

The former papal nuncio to the US, Archbishop Vigano gained much public attention in 2018 when he published a letter accusing Pope Francis of covering up the allegations of sexual abuse against Theodore McCarrick. In the letter, Vigano called on everyone who covered up McCarick’s abuses, including Pope Francis, to resign from their duties.

Since then, Archbishop Vigano has garnered attention for his outspoken criticism of coronavirus restrictions, and his rejection of the Second Vatican Council. In December 2023 he opened a seminary, Collegium Traditionis, for priests and seminarians to receive formation without being “subjected to the blackmail of having to accept the errors of Vatican II.”

Archbishop Vigano responded to his summons with a public letter, saying, “I regard the accusations against me as an honor.” In his letter, he refers…

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Joyce Harper, 74, alleges in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that Oblate priest George Mahoney sexually abused her and another girl after mass at Our Mother of Sorrows Church in Centreville, Maryland, in 1960. Harper was just 10 at the time, she said.

A woman is suing the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, a Catholic order based in Delaware, for sexual abuse she says she suffered as a young girl at the hands of a priest in Maryland more than 60 years ago.

Joyce Harper, 74, alleges in a lawsuit filed Wednesday and obtained and reviewed by Inside Edition Digital that she was only 10 when Oblate Priest George Mahoney sexually abused her and another girl after mass at Our Mother of Sorrows Church in Centreville, Maryland.

Mahoney died in 1971.

The lawsuit says that in 1960, Mahoney invited Harper and three other girls to help him count…

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An associate pastor at St. Philip Catholic Church who was indicted earlier this year on sexual abuse charges is facing more charges in a new indictment.

A Williamson County grand jury returned a superseding indictment on June 5 charging Rev. Juan Carlos Garcia- Mendoza with two additional counts of sexual battery.

Garcia-Mendoza was originally indicted in February with one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, one count of aggravated sexual battery, four counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and two counts of sexual battery.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 2020 at St. Rose of Lima in Murfreesboro and was assigned to St. Philip in July 2022.

St. Philip officials reported to the Diocese of Nashville Safe Environment Office in November 2023 that a teen in the parish had made a report of improper touching involving Garcia-Mendoza, records show. The diocese said Friday that Garcia-Mendoza…

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Jim Gregory and Mark Rozzi may not see their efforts pay off before departing the Legislature.

After a 2011 grand jury investigation revealed the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia had covered up the sexual abuse of dozens of young parishioners by priests, lawmakers in Harrisburg took steps to give those who remained silent about their victimization a shot at justice.

More than 13 years later, survivors are still waiting.

Two members of the state legislature, Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks) and Rep. Jim Gregory (R-Blair/Huntingdon), are among survivors of child sexual abuse. They have pushed for legislation which would give adult survivors a two-year window to sue their childhood abusers.

But both will leave the General Assembly later this year, likely before the goal comes to fruition.

Rozzi is retiring to focus on his mental health. Gregory lost his May primary. And with budget negotiations a seeming final opportunity to seek a…

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A Barnstable Superior Court jury found Mark Hession, the former Cape Cod priest accused of rape, not guilty Friday on two counts of rape alleged to have occurred between 2005 and 2008.

The jury deadlocked, however, on one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, alleged to have taken place in 2002.

Judge Mark C. Gildea declared a mistrial on the charge of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, saying the jury was “hopelessly deadlocked.” A status hearing on the indictment will be held Aug. 19 in Barnstable Superior Court.

Outside the courthouse following the verdict, Hession and his defense team, attorneys Frank C. Corso and Paolo G. Corso, and said they had no comment on the verdict.

“We believed in our case,” said Cape and Islands District Attorney Rob Galibois following the verdict. “I want to recognize the victim’s courage…

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Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children detectives arrested a Palmetto pastor Friday afternoon for possession of child pornography.

On Thursday, detectives received information that Jonathan Edward Elwing, senior pastor of Palm View Baptist Church, used cryptocurrency to make an online purchase of child sexual abuse material.

A search warrant was executed Friday at the church and Elwing’s home. Detectives found four sexually explicit images of children on his cell phone. Probable cause was developed to charge Elwing with four counts of possession of child pornography.

He was taken into custody and booked at the Manatee County Jail. Elwing resigned from his position as pastor of the church before being arrested.

The investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information about potential crimes involving Elwing is asked to contact the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office at 941-747-3011, or to remain anonymous and to be eligible for a cash reward, contact Manatee County…

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A former Texas youth pastor appeared before a Lubbock County judge on Thursday on charges he sexually assaulted a child.

Luke Cunningham, 41, former student minister at Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, was arrested Wednesday by U.S. Marshalls, according to a Lubbock County jail intake sheet.

Cunningham is accused of inappropriate conduct with a minor who is not part of the Lakeside Baptist congregation, according to a statement released by the church.

He has since been fired from Lakeside Baptist.

Prior to Lakeside, Cunningham served as the student pastor at Turning Point Community Church in Lubbock from 2016 to 2020, according to published reports.

Emails reaching out for comment to Turning Point were not returned.

However, in a statement released by Lakeside Baptist Church, church leaders said they “immediately reported” Cunningham to Texas authorities in Lubbock and Granbury. The statement added that the…

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Luke Cunningham, a former youth pastor at four Texas churches, was arrested June 19 by United States marshals in Shallowater, Texas, a small town 11 miles west of Lubbock, on one count of sexual assault of a child.

While in jail June 20, he was arrested again on two additional charges, one for sexual assault of a child and one for aggravated sexual assault of an adult.

Cunningham has served Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas; Turning Point Community Church in Lubbock; North Forth Worth Baptist Church in Fort Worth; and Agape Baptist Church (now defunct), Fort Worth.

He was arraigned on June 20, and his bond was set at $200,000, then another $300,000 was added to the bond with the new charges. He is currently being held in the Lubbock County jail. A staff member of the clerk’s office of the Lubbock County Criminal District Court indicated to Baptist News…

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Elders at Gateway Church in the Dallas area claim that until recently, they didn’t know the woman with whom Robert Morris had a “moral failing” in the 1980s was only 12 years old. However, emails released today by the attorney for the alleged victim, Cindy Clemishire, call that claim into question.

Clemishire claims Morris molested her over a four-year period in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 years old. On Tuesday, four days after Clemishire’s claims became public, Morris resigned from Gateway Church, a multi-site megachurch in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“Men that have over 100 counts of child molestation go to prison,” wrote Clemishire in a September 20, 2005, email to Robert Morris. “Men who pastor churches that have over 100 counts of child molestation go to prison and pay punitive damages. You have not had to do either. I do not believe that is fair or right.”

Though the…

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A secret recording reveals how church elders broke the news of Pastor Robert Morris’ resignation to staff members at the Texas megachurch he founded.

Four days after they learned of decades-old child sex abuse allegations against their senior pastor, Robert Morris, hundreds of Gateway Church employees filed into an auditorium in Southlake, Texas, on Tuesday to learn his fate.

Some staff members appeared solemn as they found their seats. Others looked angry. One attendee pulled out her cellphone and secretly hit record. Later, she shared the audio with NBC News and described the meeting in an interview. A second person who attended confirmed her account and the recording’s authenticity.

Kenneth W. Fambro II, a real estate executive who serves on Gateway’s board of elders, struggled through tears as he delivered the news that employees had come to hear: Morris, one of the nation’s most prominent evangelical leaders,  View Cache

The head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication has defended his department’s use of expelled Jesuit priest Marko Rupnik’s artwork in its official materials.

In a question-and-answer session with journalists at the annual Catholic Media Conference in Atlanta, Ga., on June 21, Paolo Ruffini, head of the dicastery, affirmed that while his department would not publish any new photos of the disgraced priest’s artwork, existing images of the art will remain on its website for now, with no plans for removal.

“To have an anticipation of a decision is something that in our opinion is not good,” Mr. Ruffini said in a question posed by America, referring to the ongoing investigation by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith into allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse by Father Rupnik.

However, according to reports, the dicastery has continued to feature Father Rupnik’s artwork in several new publications.

Mr. Ruffini attended the…

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“A deep sadness.”

That was the first emotion Jay, a member of the Gros Ventre Tribe, said he felt as he read an apology issued by the U.S. bishops for the Catholic Church’s mistreatment of Indigenous people.

Jay attended the now-closed St. Paul Mission Grade School on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana, where he says he was sexually abused by a religious sister, often in front of a statue of Jesus, and by a priest in a remote location in the mountains. He was 11 years old.

“I thought of those small little children, younger than me, at boarding schools miles from home,” said the 70-year-old, whose nickname is being used to protect his privacy. “It’s an awful thing.”

His own horrors have not left his head or heart, he said. “I will never really get away from them. Not until I die.”

Jay was among a number of…

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SÃO PAULO, Brazil – Prosecutors in Bolivia have reopened the case of a Catalan-born Jesuit priest who spoke about hundreds of child abuse cases in his diary.

The abuse happened especially in Indigenous communities between the 1990s and the early 2000s. A number of his superiors were informed of his actions and failed to take any measure, his accusers say.

The story of late Father Luis María Roma, who died in 2019 without ever being punished, was published by Spanish newspaper El Pais on June 16.

It recalled the equally monstrous case of Father Alfonso Pedrajas, another Spanish-born Jesuit who worked in Bolivia and wrote down in his diary dozens of child abuse acts he perpetrated over decades.

The article described how Roma, known as Padre Lucho, systematically abused and took pictures of hundreds of Indigenous girls – especially members of the Guaraní people – between 1994-2005, when he was a missionary…

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Child abuse survivors may have more time as adults to file lawsuits against their perpetrators under a new law. It’s a measure meant to strengthen efforts to hold organizations such as the Catholic Church accountable for decades of mistreatment.

Louisiana’s original “lookback window” for civil suits over older child abuse allegations was set to expire Friday, but the Louisiana Legislature approved Senate Bill 246 to extend the period another three years, until June 14, 2027. Lawmakers approved the new deadline without any objections, though Gov. Jeff Landry did not sign the bill before it became law earlier this month

The proposal is the latest attempt to get relief for adults who were abused as children but are no longer able to pursue criminal charges because the perpetrator is deceased or the applicable statute of limitations has lapsed.

People who only come to terms with their mistreatment later in life often…

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“We failed to keep these children safe. We failed to listen when they spoke out. We failed to act to ensure that it did not happen again.”

Familiar words in the mouths of bishops apologising for sexual abuse by priests.

But this time it was not a bishop reading this dog-eared script, but the premier of the Australian state of Victoria, Jacinta Allen, apologising for sexual abuse by government school teachers. She was responding this week to a heart-rending report about abuse in a primary school in the bayside suburb of Beaumaris, about 20 kilometres from Melbourne.

In 1971 and 1972 four paedophile teachers coincided at Beaumaris and abused scores of children. They began their abhorrent activity in the 1960s and continued into the 1970s. A board of inquiry was set up last year by the state government to investigate their crimes. It eventually looked into all 23 schools where they had…

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Today, June 20, 2024, the disgraced former apostolic nuncio to the US, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, posted on X that an “extrajudicial trial for schism” against him is scheduled to begin today at 3:30 p.m., at the Palace of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). He shared an image of the summons from the DDF, dated June 11 and signed by Msgr. John J. Kennedy, the Secretary for the Disciplinary Section.

Viganò states in his post that he received the notice in a “simple email” and that he is accused “of having committed the crime of schism and charging me of having denied the legitimacy of ‘Pope Francis,’ of having broken communion ‘with Him’ and of having rejected the Second Vatican Council.” He adds, “I assume that the sentence has already been prepared, given that it is an extrajudicial process.”

In the summons, Msgr….

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Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former papal nuncio to the United States, has been charged by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith with the canonical crime of schism. 

The outspoken former Vatican diplomat published Thursday morning images of his citation in an extrajudicial process, authorized by the congresso of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s members on May 10. 

According to the citation, dated June 11, the DDF’s senior membership voted to proceed with Viganò’s prosecution via an abbreviated extrajudical process, as opposed to a full canonical trial, and have ordered the former Vatican ambassador to appeal at the dicastery in Rome to answer the charges on June 20, either in person or via formal legal representation.

The charge of schism, which is defined by canon law as the “refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to…

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The Vatican’s former nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, said on Thursday that he has been summoned by the Vatican to face charges of schism.

The archbishop posted the two-page decree from the Vatican’s Dicastry for the Doctrine of Faith ordering him to appear for extrajudicial trial, citing as evidence “public statements that show a denial of the necessary elements to maintain communion with the Catholic Church.”

It also cited the denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis, breaking communion with the pontiff, and rejecting Vatican Council II.

Vigano said he regarded the accusations “as an honor.” He restated his rejection of Vatican Council II, calling it “the ideological, theological, moral and liturgical cancer of which the (Francis’) ‘synod church’ is the necessary metastasis.’’

The two-page decree dated June 11 signed by Monsignor John J. Kennedy, secretary of the disciplinary section, said he had until June 28…

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ROME – A Vatican decree published on social media by Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former nuncio to the United States who has accused Pope Francis of abuse coverup, states that he has been accused of schism.

In a decree dated June 11, 2024, the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) ordered Viganò, who served as apostolic nuncio to the United States from 2011-2016, to present himself at the DDF offices at 3:30p.m. on Thursday, June 20, to answer to charges of schism. The decree was signed by Monsignor John Kennedy, secretary of the DDF’s disciplinary section.

The decree, published on social media by Viganò himself and broadly reported in international media, said he was summoned “so that he may take note of the accusations and evidence regarding the crime of schism of which he has been accused.”

These charges, according to the decree, are based…

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Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò on Thursday claimed that the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has initiated proceedings against him over the alleged crime of schism.

Citing a document he published on his website and posted on social media, the former papal nuncio to the United States wrote that he was summoned to Rome on June 20 to face an extrajudicial penal process for the charges.

“I have been summoned to the Palace of the Holy Office on June 20, in person or represented by a canon lawyer,” the prelate wrote on X. “I assume that the sentence has already been prepared, given that it is an extrajudicial process.”

The specific charges outlined against Viganò involve making public statements that allegedly deny the fundamental elements necessary to maintain communion with the Catholic Church. This includes denying the legitimacy of Pope Francis as the rightful pontiff…

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The founding pastor of a nondenominational church near Melbourne, Australia, is refusing to resign after a seven-month investigation by a group of interim elders found him to be disqualified from ministry on a dozen counts. In addition, more than 30 people with ties to the congregation have alleged spiritual and physical abuse and manipulation, the interim elders say.

The pastor—Larry Sebastian of Casey City Church—is also accused of covering up the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl in 2013, berating staff members, and harassing a former employee by repeatedly showing up at her home after she resigned.

Sebastian denies the allegations.

In November 2023, the interim elders presented their findings and recommendations to the congregation. In a separate meeting, they also presented the findings to a group of approximately 60 whistleblowers, victims, and allies who no longer feel welcome at the church.

In a video of the whistleblower meeting that The…

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An associate pastor at St. Philip Catholic Church who was indicted earlier this year on sexual abuse charges is facing more charges in a new indictment.

A Williamson County grand jury returned a superseding indictment on June 5 charging Rev. Juan Carlos Garcia- Mendoza with two additional counts of sexual battery.

Garcia- Mendoza was originally indicted in February with one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, one count of aggravated sexual battery, four counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and two counts of sexual battery.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 2020 at St. Rose of Lima in Murfreesboro and was assigned to St. Philip in July 2022.

St. Philip officials reported to the Diocese of Nashville Safe Environment Office in November 2023 that a teen in the parish had made a report of improper touching involving Garcia-Mendoza, records show, noting that the priest was…

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DULUTH — The Rev. William C. Graham, removed from active priest duties for nearly eight years amid allegations of sexual misconduct, marked his Vatican-approved return to St. Michael’s Catholic Church in mid-May with a media conference backed by a dozen supporters and a dry stone baptismal fountain.

He used biblical terms to describe the Catholic church discipline department’s finding that there wasn’t sufficient evidence that he was guilty of the allegations.

“Light triumphing over darkness,” Graham called it.

Now, weeks after his hard-fought return, Graham will retire June 30. He said Bishop Daniel Felton gave him the option to transfer to the Cass Lake area, appeal the transfer or retire. Graham did not say mass on Sunday morning at his home church.

A letter outlining a restructuring within Duluth’s east side churches recently went out from Felton to affected pastors.

“Subsequently to that communication, this week Father Graham informed his…

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A woman is suing the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, a Catholic order based in Delaware, for sexual abuse she says she suffered as a young girl at the hands of a priest on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Joyce Harper, 74, who now lives in Florida, alleges in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that Oblate priest George Mahoney, who has since died, sexually abused her and another girl after mass at Our Mother of Sorrows Church in Centerville more than 60 years ago.

In 1960, Mahoney invited Harper, who was 10, and three other girls to help him count the Sunday offering money, the complaint says. Mahoney allegedly took Harper and another girl to his room in the church rectory and sexually assaulted them, one at a time. According to the lawsuit, Mahoney told the girls, “If you tell anyone about this you will go to HELL.”

The Baltimore Sun does…

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A Spanish Jesuit has been discovered to have documented his abuse of hundreds of Indigenous girls while serving as a missionary in rural Bolivia — atrocities which the Society of Jesus has known about since at least 2019 and did not immediately report to the civil authorities.

Jesuit Father Luis María Roma wrote in a diary of abusing girls, whom he often lured to a river and photographed inappropriately, according to the Spanish newspaper El País. The Jesuit province in Bolivia compiled a report on Roma’s acts in 2019, but withheld it from prosecutors, according to El País, which obtained a copy of the priest’s diary and the Jesuit’s investigation.

Roma died in August 2019, shortly before the report’s completion. El País published a notarized confession by the priest signed in May 2019, which read, “I got carried away, in some situations, by libidinous acts, inappropriate for a religious person, with girls from eight to 11…

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Pastor Robert Morris admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior” after a woman said the megachurch pastor repeatedly abused her in the 1980s.

Pastor Robert Morris, a Texas megachurch pastor who served as a spiritual adviser to former President Donald Trump, has confessed to a “moral failure” four decades ago after a woman accused him of repeatedly molesting her as a child.

The woman, Cindy Clemishire, told NBC News that Morris, now a senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, was staying with her family on Christmas night in 1982. She was 12; he was 21. Clemishire, now 54, said he invited her to his room, where he instructed her to lie on her back. He then touched her breasts and felt under her panties, Clemishire said — the first of several similar encounters that would span the next 4½ years, she said.

“Never tell anyone about this,” Clemishire recalled him…

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Sexual abuse survivors speak out against bankruptcy decision

The Catholic Diocese of San Diego has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, citing the need to cover legal costs related to survivors of sexual abuse. The decision has stirred controversy, particularly among survivors who fear it could delay or deny their pursuit of justice.

Cardinal Robert McElroy informed parishioners and clergy in a letter about the decision Monday. If the court accepts this filing, all 450 childhood sexual abuse claims against the Diocese since 2019 would be suspended.

Volunteers with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a press conference outside the downtown bankruptcy courthouse.

“No one spoke up for us. This feels like a strategic move to avoid accountability,” said Joelle Casteix, a survivor.

Casteix settled her own lawsuit in 2005 with the Diocese in Orange County and was integral in passing a 2019 California law that…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday for the second time, after a recent change to California law prompted 457 legal claims alleging decades-old sex abuse by the diocese’s priests.

San Diego is the site of Catholicism’s first foothold in California, through the founding of Mission San Diego de Alcala in 1769. The diocese serves 1.4 million Catholics, with 96 parishes, 204 active priests, and about 80 Catholic schools.

The diocese first filed for bankruptcy in 2007, ultimately reaching a $198 million settlement of 144 sex abuse lawsuits. That claims were triggered by a 2003 California law that allowed victims of childhood sex abuse to bring lawsuits long after the normal statute of limitations had expired.

In 2019, California again re-opened the statute of limitations and created a new three-year window for filing older sex abuse cases, causing 457 new claims to be filed…

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The Jesuits of Bolivia admitted that their actions were “negligent, indolent, and disastrous” in response to the sexual abuse of minors by priests such as the late Luis María Roma, who kept a diary and had photographs and videos of the Indigenous girls he allegedly abused. 

In another notorious case, “Padre Pica” also kept a diary in which he admitted abusing up to 85 boys and adolescents.

In a statement dated June 16, the Society of Jesus in Bolivia recognized “with deep regret that the actions of those who were in charge of addressing the complaints of sexual abuse of girls, boys, and adolescents and acting on behalf of the victims were negligent, indolent, and disastrous.”

The Jesuits in Bolivia noted that this took place “without placing the victims at the center of their attention such that those who acted in this way must be held…

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District Attorney Warren Montgomery reports that on Wednesday, July 12, 2023, former Slidell priest, Patrick Brian Wattigny, pled guilty as charged to 2 counts of molestation of a juvenile by virtue of a position of control or supervision over the juvenile.

He was sentenced by District Judge John Keller to 15 years in prison on each count, to run concurrently, with 10 of the years suspended. The Judge also sentenced Wattigny to an additional five years of probation, sex offender registration and notification, and a “no contact” order with respect to the victims. 

The D.A.’s Office did not agree to any concessions; the Court had the sole discretion in sentencing.

Wattigny, 55, a former pastor of St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church and chaplain at Pope John Paul II High School, both in Slidell had been charged in 2020, when a victim came forward to report that when he was…

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A woman accused the pastor of a North Texas megachurch over the weekend of sexually abusing her when she was 12 years old.

Robert Morris of Southlake’s Gateway Church has admitted to his congregation that his “rebellion took a form of immorality” that consisted of one night stands as a teenager. Leaked internal church documents show that he admitted to being “involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying.”

Morris resigned from Gateway Church on Tuesday after news of the alleged abuse made headlines.

The abuse started on Christmas Day 1982 and continued for more than four years in Texas and Oklahoma, accuser Cindy Clemshire told The Wartburg Watch, a blog dedicated to exposing sexual abuse in churches.

After the abuse became known to both the Clemshire and Morris families when she was 16, Clemshire’s father reportedly gave Morris an…

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Embattled Texas megachurch Pastor Robert Morris has resigned as an overseer at Church of the Highlands (COTH), the largest church in Alabama, following allegations he sexually molested a girl 40 years ago.

Morris remains a pastor at his Texas megachurch, Gateway Church. Repeated inquiries by The Roys Report (TRR) to Gateway have received no response.

In a statement released to former Baptist leader Wade Burleson, which was shared with TRR, COTH’s trustees, who are non-staff elders, stated that they were unaware of “this part of (Morris’) past.”

They added, “After being made aware of the disturbing media reports, Highlands trustees and overseers immediately initiated a due diligence process that included reaching out to Gateway’s elders. Before the scheduled follow-up meeting to determine changes in our governance structure, Pastor Morris resigned as an overseer of Church of the Highlands.”

The resignation comes on the heels of a bombshell confession that Morris allegedly sexually molested Cindy…

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The founding pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, has been accused of sexually abusing a young girl beginning in 1982, when she was just 12 years old. He was a young, married pastor with a child of his own at the time. SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, applauds this survivor for coming forward. Her courage will help to protect today’s children.

Cindy Clemishire told The Wartburg Watch that Pastor Robert Morris began sexually abusing her on Christmas Day, 1982, and that the assaults continued for four-and-a-half years. Pastor Morris said in a statement that “When I was in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying. It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong. This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years.”…

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Warren County and the United Methodist Church have agreed to pay $875,000 to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of a man who was sexually abused as a child.

Warren County and the United Methodist Church have agreed to pay $875,000 to settle a sexual abuse lawsuit filed on behalf of a man who was sexually abused as a child nearly 50 years ago by a former minister who had also been the boy’s foster parent.

The former pastor, 82-year-old Richard A. Reynolds, is a Guilderland resident who previously operated a professional clown business for more than two decades, including at area children’s events, after his retirement from the Methodist church 25 years ago, according to his online profile and attorneys in the case.

In at least two lawsuits filed under New York’s Child Victims Act, Reynolds has been accused of molesting numerous boys in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was…

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A former youth pastor out of First Baptist Church in Long Beach, who was also a former Harrison County reserve deputy, has been arrested on two counts of sexual battery and one count of touching a child for lustful purposes.

Long Beach Police Chief Billy Seal says the investigation began in November of 2022 when the family of a female victim alerted authorities, alleging that pastor John Douglas Jones was abusing the victim.

Jones was arrested after he was indicted by a grand jury. He left the church shortly after the investigation began in 2022.

Officials say Jones and the victim met through the youth program at First Baptist Church.

Harrison County Sheriff Matt Haley said Jones was also a reserve deputy with the department. Jones served from 2018 to November of 2022. He was asked to leave after the allegations were made, according to Sheriff Haley.

Reserve deputies serve…

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Dorothy Small an advocate for SNAP, Survivor Network for those Abused by Priests since 2019, was a child sex abuse victim. She also experienced sexual abuse by a clergyman as an adult. Dorothy courageously addressed the latter through successful litigation publicly disclosing her identity prior to the inception of the #Me Too movement. Victimized but not a victim she shares how she moved beyond surviving to thriving using adversity as a powerful motivator. She fortified herself with knowledge of personability disorders and tactics used by predators to help her spot wolves in sheep’s clothing. This has enabled her to feel safe in a world where safety is not guaranteed, even in institutions where one would expect it such as religious. A retired registered nurse with over forty years of clinical experience, Dorothy lives with her loving fur companions Bradley Cooper and Captain Ron, Boston Terriers. She is a self-published author, cancer…

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After being released from a 10-year prison term, an 85-year-old music director has been told in no uncertain terms that he is not welcome in any church in the Diocese of Bethlehem of The Episcopal Church.

On June 10, Bishop of Bethlehem Kevin Nichols sent a pastoral directive to all of the more than 50 congregations in the diocese, instructing them to notify Bernard Kenneth Schade,  in writing that “he is not permitted, licensed, or privileged to be upon your parish’s church property or to enter or remain in any of the parish buildings or structures.” Schade is also known by the name Ken Werner.

On June 15, Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez sent a similar pastoral directive to the more than 130 churches in the Philadelphia-based Diocese of Pennsylvania, acknowledging Nichols’s action and noting that Schade had performed at churches in the neighboring diocese.

Schade, the founder of a…

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Two commissions overseeing research into the denomination’s part in the assimilationist schools are asking Episcopal bishops to grant access to archives in their regions and to recruit research assistants of their own. 

For most Native American children in the late 19th century and early 20th, education was neither a right nor a privilege. Indigenous children from Florida to Alaska were taken away, sometimes by force, to residential schools run by the government and often by denominations that operated under government contracts.

The aim of the education was to teach the children European American ways. Anything Indian, from language to clothing and dance, was forbidden. The system left a trail of trauma and death amid a quest for mass assimilation into white settler culture.

Now the Episcopal Church, which was involved in running at least 34 of the schools, has begun to reckon with the outsized role it played in this history….

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• Clergy sex abuse victims blast SD bishop
• They call his new legal move “frightening”
• SNAP: “It’s just one more way of hiding predators”
• Diocese seeks Chapter 11 protection & end to lawsuits

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will

–harshly criticize San Diego’s bishop for using bankruptcy court to “keep clergy sex abuse secrets secret and prevent abuse survivors from having their day in court,” and

–beg him to give victims a longer time to come forward, and not push for a tight deadline which re-victimizes many.

They will also call on

–Catholics to pressure top Catholic officials to “stop playing legal hardball” and fighting victims,

–other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to step forward and report known and suspected clergy sex crimes and cover ups “so that kids receive protection and victims receive justice and healing,” and

–police, prosecutors and other officials to work…

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The U.S. bishops are set to vote on a revised pastoral document for the pastoral care of indigenous peoples during their plenary assembly meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, this week.

The document was originally set to be approved by the bishops during their Baltimore meeting in November last year, but the text was suddenly pulled from the agenda during the course of the meeting.

The Pillar reported at the time that last minute concerns had been raised during the meeting that language in some parts of the document could create liability issues for the Church and needed to be revisited. 

But, with the document back on the agenda for the USCCB’s gathering this week, what’s likely to have changed?

The document, “Keeping Christ’s Sacred Promise: A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry,” was drafted by the USCCB’s subcommittee on Native American affairs, chaired by Bishop Chad Zielinski of New Ulm, following a vote…

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World’s leading coalition of clergy abuse victims forms historic collaboration with Catholic Church’s top anti-abuse experts

The two sides meet for three days in Rome to create a new “zero tolerance” norm for abusive clergy

They will jointly present their proposal in September

For the first time in the history of the clergy sex abuse crisis, a global network of clergy abuse survivors is joining forces with the church’s top anti-abuse experts to create a new “zero tolerance” mandate in the Catholic Church.

Leaders of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) met privately last week with Father Hans Zollner, SJ, director of the Institute of Anthropology (IADC) at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and Monsignor Peter Beer, IADC’s head of research and development.

For three days, from 6-8 June, the leaders of ECA and the IADC worked together to create a proposal for new policies and laws, including the permanent removal of clergy sex abusers…

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The Catholic order, which hid the results of its internal investigation into Lucho Roma from the civil justice systems, admits that its actions were ‘negligent, indolent and disastrous’

EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018 and has an updated database with all known cases. If you know of any case that has not seen the light, you can write to us at: abusos@elpais.es. If it is a case in Latin America, the address is: abusosamerica@elpais.es.

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The Society of Jesus in Bolivia has admitted that its handling of the pedophile case of the Spanish priest Lucho Roma — who abused and photographed at least a hundred Indigenous girls and detailed his actions in writing — “were negligent, indolent and disastrous,” according to a statement published Sunday by the Catholic congregation. The statement came hours after EL PAÍS published an investigation that uncovered how Lucho…

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NEW YORK – With the Diocese of San Diego facing about 450 lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse of minors by priests, religious, and laity, Cardinal Robert McElroy has informed the clergy and faithful that today the diocese will file for bankruptcy for the second time.

The announcement comes about 16 months after McElroy said the diocese was considering the move.

“For the past year, the Diocese has held substantive and helpful negotiations with attorneys representing the victims of abuse, and I, in collaboration with the leadership of the Diocese, have come to the conclusion that this is the moment to enter formally into bankruptcy and continue negotiations as part of the bankruptcy process,” McElroy said in a June 13 letter.

McElroy explained that bankruptcy offers the best pathway for the diocese to both justly compensate victims of sexual abuse, and to “continue the church’s mission of education, pastoral service and…

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Advocates for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) gathered on the sidewalk outside the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in downtown San Diego to protest the Catholic Diocese of San Diego’s decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

“By speaking out we have the voice that was taken away from us when we were kids,” said Joelle Casteix, survivor & advocate.

“Today’s a sad day. To be out in front of this courthouse is a sad day for all of the victims in San Diego,” said Paul Livingston, San Diego SNAP Director.

The Diocese says they are trying to be transparent.

“We have a moral obligation and we’re going to fulfill it. One of the reasons we’re going to not just fulfill it, but let people watch us fulfill it, is the transparent process of bankruptcy,” said Kevin Ecker, San Diego Diocese spokesperson.

But survivors see it differently.

…

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The Diocese of San Diego says it filed for bankruptcy to compensate survivors of abuse in the church.

Survivors of sex abuse in the Catholic church called out the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego after it filed for bankruptcy in federal court today.

Reaction came in response to the diocese’s need to pay out more than $500 million in claims from people who say they were sexually abused.

“Sheer and utter disappointment, this is the second time that they are now trying to use the bankruptcy system to silence survivors, to make sure that their crimes stay hidden,” said Joelle Casteix, a sex abuse survivor.

The Catholic Diocese of San Diego officially filed for bankruptcy in the wake of the legal claims filed by alleged sex abuse survivors. One victim says that this does nothing to stop future abuse in the church.

On the front steps…

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The Diocese of San Diego filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, the latest U.S. diocese to do so in response to hundreds of sexual abuse allegations leveled against it. 

San Diego bishop Cardinal Robert McElroy said in February 2023 that the diocese was considering declaring bankruptcy due to the “staggering” legal costs of responding to 400 new lawsuits brought during a three-year statewide expansion of the statute of limitations for child abuse cases.

In a letter to the diocese on Thursday, McElroy said that diocesan leaders have spent the past 16 months reviewing the abuse cases and that the diocese has “come to the conclusion that this is the moment to enter formally into bankruptcy and continue negotiations as part of the bankruptcy process.”

The bankruptcy filing, the cardinal said, was motivated by “the need for just compensation for victims of sexual abuse” as well as…

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Today, the Diocese of San Diego filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. This decision by Bishop Robert McElroy is an irresponsible attempt to obstruct survivors of clergy sexual abuse from obtaining justice through lawsuits filed under the California Child Victims Act.

“The Diocese of San Diego’s decision to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy demonstrates the Bishop’s priority of secrecy and self-protection,” said Jeff Anderson. “What the Bishop continues to underestimate is the strength and resilience of the survivors who will not be denied justice.”

The Diocese of San Diego is the fifth diocese to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in California following the close of the Child Victims Act on December 31, 2022. The Diocese of Sacramento (4.1.2024), the Diocese of Santa Rosa (3.13.2023), the Diocese of Oakland (5.8.2023), and the Archdiocese of San Francisco (8.21.23) have already filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in the wake of child sexual abuse lawsuits. The Diocese of…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, has announced their filing for bankruptcy.  The filing stems from hundreds of legal claims of sexual assault.  NBC 7’s Kelvin Henry has more on the story.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego announced on June 13, that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid hundreds of legal claims from people accusing the diocese and its employees of sexual abuse.

“We received a letter from Cardinal McElroy and he explained the situation,” Parishioner Fran Savarese said.

The reaction from churchgoers comes only days after a local diocese spokesperson said this is a stain on the church’s reputation.

“The fact that these abuses ever took place is a stain on the Catholic Church, so we have to respond to that no matter what,” Spokesperson for the Diocese of San Diego, Kevin EcKery, told NBC 7. 

In 2007, the Diocese settled…

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In short:

• Former Bishop of Broome Christopher Alan Saunders has faced court on two new counts of unlawful and indecent assault.
• The police prosecutor told the court there were more than 200 people on the police witness list.
• What’s next: The 74-year-old will face court again in July.

The former Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders has faced court on two new charges of historical sexual offences in the Kimberley. 

The 74-year-old is facing 28 charges in total, including two counts of sexual penetration without consent, three counts of indecent dealing with a child and 16 counts of unlawful and indecent assault.

In April, police charged the former Bishop Saunders with two new counts of unlawful and indecent assault, which are alleged to have occurred in 2016. 

The other historical charges are alleged to have taken place in different towns in the Kimberley between 2008 and 2014. 

Mr Saunders arrived alone in a…

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Parish representatives said the posting could help “to educate parishioners in general about how to recognise and deal with inappropriate behaviour”.

Lithuanian Catholics voiced concern at the appointment of a priest convicted on abuse charges to a prominent parish. 

The Archdiocese of Vilnius announced a series of new postings on 4 June, including the assignment of Fr Sigitas Grigas to the Parish of Blessed Jurgis Matulaitis, well known for its wide pastoral and social activities network involving minors and vulnerable persons. Fr Grigas was found guilty of possession of child abuse images in 2020 and was also subject to a canonical inquiry. 

The academic and Church commentator Paulius Subacius said it was “perverse that a strong, active community is not consulted or presented in advance with the reasons for what is clearly a controversial appointment”, especially after the archdiocese had encouraged the laity to become involved with their parish. 

“As the…

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BARNSTABLE — A former Cape Cod priest accused of rape did not take the stand before his attorneys rested their case in Barnstable Superior Court on Thursday morning.

Mark Hession served as the parish priest of Our Lady of Victory in Centerville from 2000 to 2014. He is on trial for two counts of rape alleged to have happened between 2005 and 2009 and one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 alleged to have happened sometime in 2002. A count of intimidating a witness was dropped.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges in January of 2021.

Closing statements from attorneys on both sides were expected to be delivered on Friday morning. Judge Mark C. Gildea instructs the jury about the specific laws that apply to the case before they enter into deliberations to reach a verdict.

Frank Corso, one of Hession’s two defense attorneys, declined to comment while leaving…

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A former Franklin priest who was removed from ministry back in January and then indicted on multiple charges in February has been indicted on additional counts of sexual battery, according to officials.

The Catholic Diocese of Nashville said Rev. Juan Carlos Garcia was an associate pastor at St. Philip Catholic Church in Franklin, but he was removed from his position and from active ministry while the Franklin Police Department investigated a teen’s report of improper touching involving the priest.

On Feb. 9, the diocese announced Garcia had been indicted by the Williamson County Grand Jury on one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, one count of aggravated sexual battery, four counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, and two counts of sexual battery.

Nearly four months later, on June 5, the grand jury returned a superseding indictment, charging the former priest — now…

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While church representatives acknowledged the need for change and action, no specific examples or actions were detailed during a recent meeting with victims

KIIWETINOONG, Ont. — Horrific and traumatic were the words used by NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa to describe a meeting he sat in on with some of the victims who detailed historic sexual abuse from Ralph Rowe, a former Anglican priest and scoutmaster.

The meeting included representatives of the Anglican Church of Canada and Rowe.   

In the 1970s and 1980s, Rowe worked in First Nations across Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba. Authorities believe he abused up to 500 children.

With the blessing of the victims who attended the meetings in Toronto, Mamakwa released a statement this week condemning the actions of the involved individuals, especially those of Rowe, who was convicted of numerous charges throughout the last 30 years for the abuse. 

“The impact of one man has caused immense damage, affecting survivors and…

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Robert Morris is the founder and senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake

The ex-Trump advisor was accused of sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl in the 80s

Morris said he engaged in ‘inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady’

A woman has accused the pastor of a Texas megachurch of sexually abusing her when she was 12, with the preacher only admitting to ‘inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady.’

Robert Morris, 62, the founder and senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, which claims a weekly attendance of 100,000, is facing the allegations from former family friend Cindy Clemishire.

She claimed the pastor, who was also once a spiritual advisor to former President Donald Trump, abused her from 1982 to 1987, when she was between the ages of 12 and 16.

Clemishire, who went public with her accusations and revealed her identity Friday, said that Morris was a…

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A year ago in New Orleans, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force unveiled what they called their Ministry Check website prototype and assured members it would eventually list the names of clergy and other church workers who have preyed on children.

A year later, no names have been posted and the task force has disbanded, unable to complete the task after working on it for two years.

Victim advocates, who have been calling for creation of a database since 2007, are disappointed. Survivors are questioning whether the nation’s largest Protestant denomination can ever be trusted again to keep its promises.

“This idea of a database was first on the table back in 2007 and 2008 and (was) rejected. … In these intervening 16 or 17 years, countless more kids and congregants have had their lives decimated, not only by abuse, but also by the ugly, blind-eyed responses…

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A blog recounting the alleged sexual abuse of a woman when she was 12-years-old by Gateway Church Pastor Robert Morris has prompted the Texas-based megachurch to acknowledge decades-old “moral failure.” However, in a statement to staff, the church did not note the age of the woman at the time of the “inappropriate sexual behavior,” referring to her simply as a “young lady.”

Gateway Church was founded in 2000 by Morris and has more than 100,000 people attending each weekend at their nine sites and online.

On Friday morning, The Wartburg Watch published a story, alleging that Pastor Morris had sexually abused Cindy Clemishire, a 54—year-old grandmother of three from Oklahoma, beginning in 1982, when she was 12.

Around 4 p.m. yesterday, Executive Lead Pastor Thomas Miller sent a statement from Gateway’s elders to church staff via the messaging platform Slack, according to sources close to the church. Those…

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The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is responding as SNAP — or Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — seeks to add the names of five priests to the archdiocese’s disclosures regarding clergy sexual abuse of minors.

June 12, members of SNAP gathered for a news conference on the sidewalk outside the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul to address the organization’s concern that five priests have not been added to the list. SNAP had listed six priests but retracted one after learning that priest is currently listed as credibly accused on the archdiocese’s website.

SNAP activist David Clohessy said that adding names to the list “is not our job.”

“Our job is to heal ourselves and to reach out to others who are suffering in silence and shame and self-blame,” he said.

Two priests out of the five listed are alive, and the whereabouts of those…

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Herman Paul Pressler III of Houston died June 7, four days before the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, where nothing was said about his passing.

Pressler, who had just turned 94, was the co-architect of the so-called “conservative resurgence” in the SBC.

He was a leading figure in the denomination for five decades. However, he has been credibly accused of sexual abuse of boys and young men over a period of years. Those allegations put his previous status as a champion of conservatism in a new light.

Baptist News Global has confirmed the death as verified by a printed order of service from the funeral held Saturday, June 15, at George H. Lewis and Sons Funeral Home in Houston. About 70 people were reported to have attended the service.

Over the years, Pressler and his family were associated with both First Baptist Church of Houston and Second Baptist Church of…

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In 2015, when Bishop Edward Malesic was installed in the Diocese of Greensburg, he inherited a diocese still grappling with the enormity of the clergy abuse crisis. He committed to increasing transparency and outside oversight and established a Safe Environment Advisory Council. Unfortunately, since his 2020 departure, the diocese has increasingly pushed down the responsibilities and ownership of the Safe Environment mandate directly to the parishes and schools. These include many parishes with multiple churches but one pastor, who would ultimately be responsible.

If the diocese genuinely believes in Safe Environment implementation, why have they pushed away such great responsibility and why do they not have a full-time person(s) responsible for implementation? The most visible victim of the diocese’s laxity is a beloved pastor respected for his commitment to the welfare and safety of our youth.

At a hastily called diocesan meeting May 28, his parishioners were informed by Bishop…

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U.S. bishops on Friday approved new guidelines for ministering to Indigenous Catholics, a long in-the-works effort to reinvigorate the ministry and assure those communities that they don’t need to feel torn between their Native identity and their Catholic one.

“You are both. Your cultural embodiment of the faith is a gift to the Church,” states the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ document. It was completed as new details emerged during the past two years of widespread abuses inflicted on Native children over many decades at Catholic-run boarding schools.

“The Church recognizes that it has played a part in traumas experienced by Native children,” according to the new “Keeping Christ’s Sacred Promise: A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry.” The document received overwhelming support at this week’s USCCB meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.

It is meant to help bishops “refocus and invigorate ministry among Indigenous populations in the United States,” said Bishop Chad…

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Leaders of San Diego’s Roman Catholic Diocese have alerted parishioners and clergy that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday in order to meet the need for just compensation for victims of sexual abuse, and to continue to church’s mission.

However, some are concerned that this is a strategy to protect itself from future lawsuits and from paying survivors a fair compensation.

“The fact that these abuses ever took place is a stain on the catholic church so we have to respond to that no matter what,” said Kevin Eckery with the Catholic Diocese of San Diego.

Cardinal McElroy told community members in a letter Thursday that the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy next week.

The letter states the filing is in an effort to achieve the “settlement of approximately 450 legal claims that have been brought to…

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But they stopped short of acknowledging some of the worst traumas.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which creates policies for the church in the United States, formally apologized on Friday for the church’s role in traumatizing Native American children at boarding schools until the mid-1900s. It’s “the most direct expression of regret to date” by church officials for forcibly assimilating Indigenous kids into white culture, according to the Washington Post, whose investigative reporters recently documented the widespread sexual abuse by priests and nuns at these schools.

“The family systems of many Indigenous people never fully recovered from these tragedies, which often led to broken homes harmed by addiction, domestic abuse, abandonment and neglect,” the bishops said in a 56-page document, which came after decades of attempts by Native Americans to demand accountability from the US government and the Catholic Church. There were more than 500 schools in the United States, and 84 of…

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Following closing statements made by the defense and prosecution Friday in the trial of Mark Hession, the former Cape Cod priest accused of rape, court was adjourned without the jury reaching a verdict.

The jury was instructed by Barnstable Superior Court Judge Mark C. Gildea to return to court Monday morning at 10:30 a.m. to continue deliberations. 

Hession, who served as the parish priest of Our Lady of Victory in Centerville from 2000 to 2014, faces two counts of rape alleged to have occurred between 2005 and 2008, and one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 alleged to have taken place in 2002. He pleaded not guilty to all charges since his January 2021 indictment.

Defense: ‘Rewriting history’

The defense team, led by attorneys Frank C. Corso and Paolo G. Corso, rested their case on Thursday without calling Hession to the stand. Paolo Corso said Friday…

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Dorothy Small is a candid person, devout believer in God, and a woman with a lot of life experience. What is her advocacy for Survivor Network for those Abused by Priests?

Dorothy Small an advocate for SNAP, Survivor Network for those Abused by Priests since 2019, was a child sex abuse victim. She also experienced sexual abuse by a clergyman as an adult. Dorothy courageously addressed the latter through successful litigation publicly disclosing her identity prior to the inception of the #Me Too movement. Victimized but not a victim she shares how she moved beyond surviving to thriving using adversity as a powerful motivator. She fortified herself with knowledge of personability disorders and tactics used by predators to help her spot wolves in sheep’s clothing. This has enabled her to feel safe in a world where safety is not guaranteed, even in institutions where one would expect it such as religious….

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While highlighting substantial progress the American Church has made to address the abuse of minors, the chair of the board created to monitor the implementation of the Dallas Charter in 2002 has called for even greater buy-in from bishops and warned against complacency.

“We must keep the child of today, the child of tomorrow, and especially that child of yesterday, at the center of all of our decision making.” Suzanne Healy, Chair of the National Review Board, said in an address to the American bishops on June 14.

“I am in awe of the many examples of compassionate, radical accompaniment occurring across the U.S,” Healy said. “Again, we cannot become complacent, and we must remain vigilant in ongoing support of these important ministries and their departments.”

Healy made the comments at the U.S. Bishops’ Conference spring general assembly.

Other than Healy’s address, the gathering’s second public session included a vote…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego announced today that it will file for bankruptcy in the wake of hundreds of legal claims from alleged sexual abuse victims.

In a letter to parishioners and clergy, Cardinal Robert McElroy wrote that bankruptcy would help the Diocese fulfill its goals going forward, while also compensating abuse victims.

Last year, McElroy announced the possibility of bankruptcy in a separate letter, as he wrote then that the Diocese “must face the staggering legal costs” in response to lawsuits alleging abuse dating back as far as 1945.

In 2007, the Diocese settled lawsuits brought by 144 victims, but recently more than 450 claims have been made against the Diocese, according to a statement. The Diocese said more than 60% of the latest claims are for incidents that occurred more than 50 years ago.

In last year’s letter, McElroy wrote that the 144 claims were settled…

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In Friday vote, church leaders cite a “history of trauma” inflicted on Native Americans, including generations of children removed from their families to be forcibly assimilated.

U.S. Catholic bishops issued a formal apology Friday morning for the church’s role in inflicting a “history of trauma” on Native Americans, including at church-run Indian boarding schools where a Washington Post investigation published last month documented pervasive sexual abuse by priests.

The vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which establishes policies and norms for the church in the United States, represents the most direct expression of regret to date by church officials for past participation in a systematic effort by the U.S. government to forcibly assimilate Native Americans into White society. By a 181-2 vote, the bishops approved a document called “Keeping Christ’s Sacred Promise: A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry.” Three bishops abstained.

The document does…

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U.S. Catholic bishops apologized Friday for the Catholic Church’s part in fostering “a history of trauma” on Indigenous children at church-run boarding schools where priests sexually abused students.

Why it matters: It’s an official acknowledgment of the church’s past abuse against Indigenous children as the extent of widespread abuses inflicted on Native children over many decades has come into sharper focus.

Zoom in: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved by an 181-2 vote the document “Keeping Christ’s Sacred Promise: A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry” in Louisville, Kentucky, as part of the apology.

• “The system itself left a legacy of community and individual trauma that broke down family and support systems among Indigenous communities,” the document said, referring to boarding schools.
• The document didn’t mention sexual abuse but said the church must “increase awareness and break the culture of silence that surrounds all types of afflictions and past mistreatment and neglect.”
• The document also…

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A former New Orleans priest accused of rape and kidnapping a child in the 1970s will not have the results of his second mental evaluation for at least another month.

Lawrence Hecker’s attorneys were in court Thursday, where the doctor who did his evaluation last month said that it would take him weeks before he could review and release the results.

Hecker was in the courthouse but did not enter the courtroom. He was with a nurse in the hall who told his attorneys that his condition was deteriorating.

The results could decide if Hecker is competent to stand trial.

According to the doctor, there are more than 7,000 pages of medical records that he needs to review before making a decision on Hecker’s evaluation.

Hecker’s trial was supposed to start in March, but he had to undergo a mental evaluation before the trial could begin.

The doctor who completed…

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A Virginia pastor has been removed from his parish following concerns over his handling of abuse allegations against a parishioner who was also a school parent.

Father Rob Cole was dismissed effective June 12 from St. John the Apostle Parish in Virginia Beach by Bishop Barry C. Knestout of Richmond.

In a June 12 media release, the Diocese of Richmond said that Bishop Knestout had “determined that St. John the Apostle parish would benefit from new pastoral leadership.”

Father Cole had been placed on temporary leave in May after allegations emerged that an adult parishioner — later named as Vincent Jakawich — had reportedly molested two students at St. John the Apostle School a few years earlier.

Jakawich, a former Navy lieutenant and pilot, was found dead in North Carolina, having taken his own life shortly after the parents of a St. John the Apostle student publicly stated their daughter…

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A central Indiana man working as a youth pastor, substitute teacher and coach in Henry County has been arrested on child sex crime charges.

Bryan Crabtree of Sulphur Springs was arrested Thursday afternoon by the Henry County Sheriff’s Office. Detectives began investigating Crabtree after receiving reports of sexual misconduct involving children.

Crabtree is a youth pastor with the Sulphur Springs Christian Church as well as a substitute teacher and coach with the Shenandoah School Corporation, HCSO said. The church immediately fired Crabtree after his arrest.

HSCO said the school district has since been notified of his charges, police added. FOX59/CBS4 has reached out to the district for comment.

The following preliminary charges have been filed against Crabtree:

• Sexual Misconduct with a Minor – Level 4 Felony
• Child Solicitation (3 counts) – Level 5 Felony

Henry County officials said that the investigation into Crabtree is ongoing and that additional charges are expected…

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Ryan Kelley McElrath, a youth pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Jackson, was arrested Tuesday morning on charges of sexual battery and statutory rape.

McElrath, 39, was arrested at a Willow Green Drive residence at approximately 9:45 a.m. After being booked into the Madison County Jail, he was released at 6:12 p.m. on $70,000 bond.

He faces the following three charges:

• Sexual battery by an authority figure
• Statutory rape
• Statutory rape by an authority figure – forcible rape

Only one individual is listed as a youth pastor on the church’s website currently and little trace of McElrath remains on the page.

According to church leadership, McElrath was terminated following the charges.

Eugene Brandt, Lead Pastor at Fellowship Bible Church, shared the following statement:

“As a church community we are absolutely devastated by this. And, as a parent, I share in our God’s outrage and grief when the innocent are harmed. We are…

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