ABUSE TRACKER

Thanks for reading Mass. Politics, where we try to go behind the oft-closed doors of the State House. In this edition: Andrea Campbell, Aaron Michlewitz and more

After the latest clergy sex abuse report, what stands in the way of reform on Beacon Hill? 

After releasing a damning report last week on a yearslong investigation into sex abuse at three Catholic dioceses in Massachusetts, Attorney General Andrea Campbell called for lawmakers to take specific actions. Her office recommended ending the statute of limitations for civil child sexual abuse claims and eliminating the $20,000 cap on how much nonprofit charities like the dioceses can be forced to pay in damages.

Advocates say both the cap and the current statute make it hard to sue and seek justice in child sex abuse cases, particularly since victims often don’t come forward until they’re much older. Many of the cases in Campbell’s report…

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The ruling is a small victory for the religious entities, which are facing more than 1,000 lawsuits over claims of childhood sexual abuse.

(CN) — A California court of appeal ruled Monday that liability in childhood sexual abuse cases revived by a 2019 law is still subject to a 1986 ballot measure that limited noneconomic damages.

“The Legislature undoubtedly intended to give childhood sexual abuse survivors a chance to pursue claims they may have understandably been reluctant to pursue, or could not pursue, when they were younger,” Baker wrote. “But we see no persuasive evidence of a legislative intent to require the revived claims to proceed as if the law were trapped in 1986 amber,” wrote Associate Justice Lamar Baker in the opinion.

The court’s opinion arises out of a consolidated action based in Alameda County Superior…

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The new Catholic Bishop of Derry Michael Router has vowed that the diocese will ‘move immediately to seek the most serious penalty available under Church law’ for paedophile priest Fr Edward Gallagher.

The Bishop was reacting after the disgraced priest pleaded guilty to 109 sex offences at Derry Crown Court on Monday. Gallagher will be sentenced in December.

Speaking after the hearing, Bishop Router said his thoughts were first and foremost ‘with all those who have been affected by the case involving Father Edward Gallagher’, and ‘particularly the children who have suffered harm and those who continue to live with the consequences of abuse and exploitation’.

“The events of the past 18 months have caused immense distress to victims and survivors of abuse, parishioners, families, clergy and the wider community,” Bishop Router said.

“While Fr Gallagher was immediately suspended from priestly ministry following his arrest, the substantive church process was…

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Edward Gallagher, 59, will be sentenced in December

A priest has pleaded guilty to 109 sex offences at Londonderry Crown Court.

Edward Gallagher, 59, whose address is Maghaberry Prison, will be sentenced in December for offences between 22 June 2023 and 18 April 2025.

They include among others attempted sexual communication with a child under 16, having indecent images of a child, possessing an extreme pornographic image and attempting to encourage a child to engage in sexual activity.

The Catholic Bishop of Derry Michael Router confirmed that he would ask the Vatican to dismiss Gallagher from the priesthood.

When the charges were put to him Gallagher pleaded guilty to them all.

Defence counsel Stephen Mooney said that a pre-sentence report was needed and that “the facts are what they are”.

Gallagher remains in custody pending sentencing on 9 December.

‘Immense distress’

In a statement on Monday, Bishop Router said his…

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A federal judge has rejected a bankruptcy plan put forward by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland more than three years after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in response to a wave of sexual abuse lawsuits dating back decades. 

In a 109-page decision on Friday, Judge William J. Lafferty dismissed several of the diocese’s arguments in favor of the plan, including that it should be granted special consideration in the bankruptcy proceedings because of its status as a religious institution. The plan was opposed by the nine-member committee representing the abuse survivors who argued that the diocese had underestimated the value of its assets — including churches, cemeteries and other properties across the East Bay. 

“This is not a happy result, to be sure, for any of the parties, or their counsel who have been deeply — and as they might well occasionally have imagined, perpetually — immersed…

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In the detailed written instructions given to the young women who worked without pay in the then-Reverend Chris Brain’s house, there was a revealing demand.

The homebase team, as they were known, were to “do anything” the Church of England priest asked of them.

Routine tasks – assigned on a rota 24 hours a day, seven days a week – included cooking, cleaning, ironing, shopping, looking after Brain’s young daughter, and walking his dog.

This housework was intended to free Brain for his mission of leading the Nine O’Clock Service (NOS), a radical congregation of hundreds of young people drawn weekly to a Sheffield church in the 1980s and 1990s by a fusion of rave culture, live music, environmental activism and liturgy.

But the lengthy list of homebase team duties did not spell out other demands Brain made in the attic bedroom of his family’s end-terrace house in the suburb…

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Tom McCarthy’s biographical drama “Spotlight” won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 2016. The film, featuring a stacked ensemble led by Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo, was widely praised for chronicling the investigative reporting by the Boston Globe that exposed the Catholic Church’s systemic cover-up of sexual abuse of children by priests. A decade later, McCarthy says his influential film still hasn’t galvanized enough change within the church.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people who saw the movie. A lot of people who felt understood after the movie was released,” McCarthy told Variety Saturday night at the New York Film Festival. “Has it caused a lot of change within the Catholic Church? In my opinion, not really. Not enough. It’s not enough until every child is safe, as far as I’m concerned. And that’s a zero sum game….

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Angry residents gathered outside an Anglican church on Sunday, demanding the removal of a priest accused of sexually assaulting minors.

Angry community members stormed into a local Anglican church in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday, demanding the immediate removal of a priest accused of sexually assaulting seven minors.

The residents want the Anglican priest expelled from the parish and stripped of his duties following allegations that have emerged from families of the alleged victims.

The allegations came to light after one of the alleged victims spoke out, prompting other families to come forward with similar claims.

Three cases have been opened at the Mountain Rise police station, with more expected to be opened this week as the allegations continue to emerge.

Church member and community activist Pinky Seoka said the community was particularly angered by the priest’s court appearance on Friday, where he was granted R2 000 bail.

Residents confronted church officials…

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Christopher Brain, who founded Nine O’Clock Service, ‘dominated and abused his position’ to sexually assault a ‘staggering number of women’

A former Church of England priest who established a cult-like movement has been found guilty of rape and four charges of indecent assault against four women.

Chris Brain, 69, who founded the Nine O’Clock Service, known as NOS, was convicted last year of 17 charges of indecent assault against nine women followers. He was found not guilty of another 15 charges of indecent assault.

Brain has now been found guilty of one count of rape and four counts of indecent assault after a retrial.

The verdicts mean Brain, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, has been convicted of 22 sexual offences against 13 women between 1986 and 1995. He was remanded in custody for sentencing at a later date.

Judge Freya Newbery said victims would have the chance to deliver impact statements at…

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A victim of a former Church of England priest who was found guilty of rape and four indecent assaults has said the Church “should have been in the dock” with him during his retrial.

Christopher Brain, 69, used a “culture of fear” to sexually abuse women while leader of Christian movement the Nine O’Clock Service (NOS).

He wielded great power as the head of the Sheffield-based evangelical movement, a part of the Church of England, between 1986 and 1995.

Brain, a former member of Christian rock group Present Tense, surrounded himself with young women dressed in lycra and lingerie, and abused his status to sexually abuse victims who had joined what prosecutors say was effectively a “cult”.

Last August, Brain was convicted by a jury at Inner London Crown Court of 17 counts of indecent assault against nine women.

On Friday, a second jury found Brain guilty of one count…

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Maylon Foshee, 23, built a large social media following through videos of his missionary work in Haiti and his fluency in Creole. Federal investigators allege he sexually abused minors who were under his care.

Overview:

American missionary Maylon Foshee is scheduled to return to federal court Oct. 12 after being charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors in Haiti. An FBI affidavit alleges Foshee sexually abused minors who lived with him or received educational and financial support from him while he worked with a ministry in Gonaïves.

American missionary Maylon Foshee is scheduled to return to federal court Oct. 12 after being charged with illicit sexual conduct with minors in Haiti, where authorities allege the 23-year-old Louisiana man sexually abused children while working as a missionary in Gonaïves.

Foshee, who built a large social media following through videos showcasing his fluency in Creole and his missionary work…

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The Alberta government and Anglican Church have admitted liability for sexual assaults allegedly perpetrated by a late priest who worked at an Edmonton youth jail, but a lawyer for the survivors says both are dragging their feet on compensation.

Last week, representatives for the church and provincial government were in Edmonton Court of King’s Bench for a brief hearing, where they accepted vicarious liability the actions of the late Gordon William Dominey, a priest accused of sexually abusing children incarcerated at the Edmonton Youth Development Centre between 1985 and 1990.

Dominey was initially charged in 2016 with historic sex abuse at the since-demolished centre. At its peak, the criminal case against him included 15 complainants and more than 30 criminal charges. 

Dominey died of cancer in 2019, before the case could go to trial. The court later certified a class-action lawsuit against…

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SOMERSET, Ky. (WYMT) – A Southern Kentucky pastor was arrested on sex-related charges.

Pulaski County Sheriff Bobby Jones announced the arrest of Scott C. Hughes, 54, of Somerset, following an investigation into allegations of sexual offenses involving minors.

Investigation details

The investigation is being conducted by the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division.

Crimes Against Children Detective Jay Picard received information concerning alleged sexual contact involving Hughes and people who were minors at the time of the alleged offenses. The allegations involve conduct occurring in Pulaski County beginning in 2018.

Arrest and charges

Hughes was arrested at his home Thursday night without incident.

He has been charged with Sodomy in the Second Degree, Sodomy in the Third Degree, Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, and other offenses.

Hughes was taken to the Pulaski County Detention Center and has a $75,000 bond.

Hughes was the pastor of Pleasant View Baptist Church in…

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[From BishopAccountability: This story began on page 1, above the fold, and continued on page A6. See images below.]

For years, Worcester Bishop Robert McManus has balked at disclosing the names of all the priests in his diocese who had been credibly accused of abusing children, standing alone in opposition among the state’s four Catholic leaders.

Now, McManus is under pressure to publicly release the names of every accused priest following a withering state report this week on sexual abuse by hundreds of Catholic clergy in Massachusetts.

In her blockbuster report released Wednesday, Attorney General Andrea Campbell found 90 clergy who had been accused of abuse in the Worcester diocese and 216 survivors, although she cautioned that investigators had not assessed the accusations for credibility.

Campbell, as well as survivors and watchdog groups, said disclosing their names is an important driver for healing and institutional accountability.

“It’s been business as…

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Two years after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington is pulling out of the reorganization process, citing mounting legal costs, prolonged negotiations, and the lack of a settlement and outcome for claimants who have accused Catholic clergy of sexual abuse. Since filing two years ago, the Vermont Catholic Church’s bankruptcy has developed into multiple overlapping legal battles that could have ramifications across the state for the church’s faithful.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Bishop John McDermott announced that the diocese has filed a motion seeking to exit Chapter 11 with the intention to have a hearing near the end of 2026. He said he hopes the additional time will allow the diocese and the committee representing claimants to continue negotiations and reach a settlement. The hearing is scheduled for December 8.

According to its filing, the…

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All crimes against minors to be pursued says Lithuanian bishops, Filipino bishops call for ban on political dynasties, patriarch calls for synods in Syria, and more in this week’s world news roundup.

The Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference will pursue an investigation into all crimes committed against minors and vulnerable adults within the Church since March 11, 1990, when the country became independent from the Soviet Union.

“The priority is the victim, not institutional reputation. To achieve this, it is necessary to establish how many such crimes have occurred in the past, since 11 March 1990,” the bishops said in a statement, according to a Sept. 28 Delfi report.

The investigation follows a case involving Father Tadas Švedavičius, a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Vilnius who was charged in connection with 34 criminal counts of child sexual abuse, possession of child pornography, and distributing alcohol to minors…

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The Lithuanian Catholic Church has launched an official investigation into sexual abuse committed by clergy against minors and vulnerable adults since 1990.

The Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference has launched a formal investigation to determine the scale of sexual abuse committed against minors and vulnerable adults by Catholic clergy since the nation regained its independence on March 11, 1990.

The institutional inquiry, announced during an Episcopal Conference plenary meeting in late September 2026, marks a significant shift for a religious establishment that has historically resisted external scrutiny. The decision follows years of mounting public pressure from lay Catholic activists, independent investigative journalists, and survivors, whose demands for a comprehensive review intensified after a series of high-profile criminal cases exposed profound structural failures in the Church’s safeguarding protocols.

An Institutional Inquiry Following Lay Pressure

The decision to systematically review over three decades of church history represents a belated acknowledgement of a systemic crisis…

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Some of the first evidence that the Roman Catholic Church faced a clergy abuse scandal took place during the 1990s in North Attleboro with the case of Father James Porter.

The depth of that abuse came more fully to light Wednesday as the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office released the results of a long-awaited investigation into three of the state’s dioceses: Fall River, Worcester and Springfield.

The investigation concluded that more than 270 religious leaders across the three dioceses abused more than 1,000 children over a span of about a century.

While a grand jury investigated the Archdiocese of Boston soon after The Boston Globe’s 2002 report into clergy sex abuse exposed the issue, this new report examines the rest of the state.

During the seven-year investigation first begun when Gov. Maura Healey was attorney general, lawyers for the state interviewed more than 100 people and reviewed more than 300,000 pages…

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A new state probe unveiled Wednesday finds that nearly 1,000 children were abused by Catholic leaders in Springfield, Worcester and Fall River over several decades.

Nestled in the more than 200-page report are legislative recommendations for what the state can do to help survivors get justice.

“As we engaged with survivors who had the courage to come forward, we knew that they could not get criminal liability — for example — because the laws are not on their side. We cannot apply laws retroactively, or the statute of limitations have expired,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell in a press conference Wednesday. “But when it comes to civil liability and other accountability, there is an opportunity to ensure that.”

The attorney general elevated three specific changes her office wants to see. One would eliminate what’s known as the charitable immunity cap, which limits payouts in these cases to…

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THE challenge for all Filipinos — and people everywhere, really — is to take a principled and moral stand and act without fear to protect children from sexual abuse. Adults must find their true Christian faith and have the courage to speak out, report the sexual abuse of children, and stop it by exposing the crime, telling the truth, and ending the culture of silence.

This applies to all churches, especially the Catholic Church and its bishops everywhere, as Pope Leo XIV recently spoke out in France to remind these prelates of their sacred duty to stop sexual abuse in their ranks and report them to the civil authorities. Bringing clerical child abusers to justice and convicting and jailing them is a most important way to protect children from priests and laypeople committing this heinous crime. Child sexual abuse can happen in sacristies and rectories, schools and hotels, as…

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To read Catholic League president Bill Donohue’s letter regarding the sexual abuse of public school students in Massachusetts, click here.

His letter is being sent to the governor, the attorney general, lawmakers,  bishops and the media.

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What role did Scott Hartman hold at the Catholic Foundation?

When did the victim report the online relationship to school counselors?

Why was Scott Hartman arrested according to authorities?

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — A Catholic Foundation executive was arrested Thursday after investigators accused him of engaging in a months-long online sexual relationship with a teenage girl, exchanging sexually explicit images with her and attempting to arrange an in-person sexual encounter.

Scott Hartman, 49, faces charges including grooming, pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor and pandering obscenity involving a minor, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and court documents.

Hartman was arrested by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force after investigators executed a search warrant at his home.

The investigation began in April after a teenage victim reported to school counselors that she had been involved in an online relationship with Hartman, according to…

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The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office identified 11 clergy members and church workers linked to abuse cases in the Worcester Diocese in a report released Wednesday, even as the diocese refuses to publish a comprehensive list of the accused clergy.

The names of the clergy members were included in a report by the Attorney General’s Office following a multi-year investigation into the Worcester, Springfield and Fall River Dioceses.

The report stated that there were at least 90 accused clergy connected to the Worcester Diocese and 216 documented survivors.

While the report did not identify all 90 accused clergy linked to the Worcester Diocese, investigators highlighted certain cases throughout the decades of abuse accusations and the continued lack of transparency concerns.

Many of the 11 clergy and church workers identified in the report were previously named publicly in criminal or civil lawsuits.

Unlike other…

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Findings include ‘nearly 1,000’ children abused

BOSTON — Massachusetts officials on Wednesday released the final report from a long investigation of child sexual abuse across three Catholic Dioceses.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s investigation covered the Dioceses of Worcester, Springfield and Fall River. It does not include the Archdiocese of Boston, which was the subject of a 91-page report issued by the office in 2003.

Work on the new report began in 2019, under then-Attorney General Maura Healey, who is now governor. Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office released the findings.

According to a summary issued by Campbell’s office, findings include that “more than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children across the three dioceses.”

“Behind every one of those numbers. As a child whose safety was violated, a family that was changed forever,” Campbell said.

Findings of the report

The 203-page report is…

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WORCESTER, Mass. — There is outrage from advocates and survivors in Worcester after the Massachusetts attorney general released a report detailing a lengthy investigation into child sexual abuse across three Catholic dioceses.

The archdioceses in Worcester, Springfield and Fall River were named in the report, which did not include the Archdiocese of Boston, which was the subject of a 91-page report issued by the office in 2003.

Some advocates and survivors were unaware that Worcester refused to share the names of priests accused in the investigation.

Parishioners leaving St. Paul’s Cathedral said they were split on whether they have faith that the diocese is protecting its children more than sexually abusive priests.

One Worcester woman claimed that when she was 10 years old, a nun abused her.

“She sexually abused me,” Edna Wallace said. “She locked me in a room. She wanted to do me whenever…

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Attorney General Andrea Campbell said the results of her office’s investigation into sex abuse by clergy in three Massachusetts dioceses are reason enough for state lawmakers to pass reforms that would eliminate the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims.

Advocates and survivors have been looking for these reforms for more than a decade, and now, a bill that would make them law is closer to being passed than ever before. They’re being negotiated now in a Legislative conference committee as part of a broader bill on primary care.

“This is the time,” Campbell said.

The bill would eliminate the statute of limitations for civil claims and remove the $20,000 charitable immunity cap for such cases. Campbell also supports a key measure that would make the change fully retroactive, allowing people to sue no matter when the abuse occurred.

“It is our responsibility as leaders who hold the…

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The bill would also open a lookback window that has previously bankrupted Catholic dioceses in other states

CINCINNATI — In the wake of the Catholic Church abuse scandal in 2002, roughly 400 people in Southwest Ohio came forward to report being sexually molested by priests during their childhood.

Almost 200 of them filed lawsuits, mostly in Hamilton County, but judges dismissed them one by one, without anyone coming to the courthouse or any evidence being presented, because according to state law, they were simply too old to proceed.

But their resurrection may be coming.

Ohio Sen. Bill Blessing announced last week that he will sponsor legislation to remove the criminal and civil statute of limitations in childhood sexual abuse cases and open a lookback window for victims to revive cases from decades ago.

WATCH: How abuse survivors may get a day in court

“I’ve seen really small monetary settlements…

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When David Lewcon learned that the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office finished its investigation into the Worcester Diocese, he felt both relieved and doubtful.

In 2019, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into the Worcester, Springfield and Fall River Dioceses. Seven years later, on Wednesday, the office released its report, finding that over 200 members of the clergy abused over 1,000 children throughout the three dioceses over the span of a century.

Lewcon, 72, was one of those children, being abused by a Worcester Diocese priest at the St. Mary Church in Uxbridge during the 1970s.

The survivor told MassLive on Thursday he is thankful that the investigation has wrapped up after such a long time and said that action must be taken to hold abusers accountable.

Whether Lewcon thinks those actions will actually materialize is a different story.

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Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell released a long-anticipated report today documenting decades of sexual abuse within the Catholic dioceses in Fall River, Springfield and Worcester.

A report released by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s office on Wednesday found evidence that more than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children across the Catholic Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester.

“Behind every one of those numbers is a child whose safety was violated, a family that was changed forever and a survivor who carried the trauma of that abuse for years and, in many cases, decades,” said Campbell during a press conference on Wednesday.

The investigation began in 2019 under former AG Maura Healey, but its release was delayed. In 2023, Campbell told GBH that she was working to make the report public at that time, but was unable to because of potential criminal charges.

“This was a criminal investigation,…

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BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Attorneys representing sexual abuse survivors are vowing to fight a sudden move by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington on Wednesday to dismiss its two-year-old bankruptcy case, calling it an effort to avoid fair compensation.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy to liquidate assets and help pay off settlements with sexual abuse survivors in 2024. Two years after filing, they are now trying to dismiss their own bankruptcy case.

Attorneys representing survivors call it a bad-faith move to dodge accountability. “The diocese made the choice to file for bankruptcy two years ago. The diocese does not get to just pull the plug because the case is not going in the direction it wants it to be going,” said Brittany Michael, an attorney representing abuse survivors.

He says they are just looking for fair compensation, rejecting the diocese’s settlement proposal of about $30…

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Statement of Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V.
September 30, 2026

As we begin to review the report issued by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, I am filled with sorrow over the historical account of incidents and practices reflecting the tragic failings to protect our most vulnerable, especially for the innocent victims who suffered, and continue to suffer, in so many ways. To all survivors of child sexual abuse, I am deeply sorry. We as a Church failed you when you were most vulnerable. As a Diocese we are firmly resolved to continue to do all we can to help you heal, to make certain we are accountable, and to protect our children so that no other child suffers as you have.

I want to assure the community that the healing of survivors and the enforcement of View Cache

In our 2022 diocesan report on child sexual abuse in the history of our diocese Bishop McManus writes: “As your bishop, I am profoundly sorry for the abuse of minors by priests within this diocese since its founding in March 1950. I continue in my commitment with the help of many collaborators to do everything we can to ensure such abuse does not happen again.”

Today the Attorney General has released a report following a grand jury investigation of our diocese along with that of Fall River and Springfield. 

We welcome the AG’s report for three reasons. 

First, after an exhaustive investigation in which we were fully cooperative, there were no charges filed. It is also worth noting that any complaints of allegations received since 2002 have been immediately forwarded to the local District Attorney’s office.

Secondly, the report validates our own report originally issued in 2004 and updated following…

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A state investigation found that more than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children in Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester over a century. (Video by Danielle Dubois/Globe Staff. Photo by Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff.)

Priests were transferred from parish to parish despite their superiors’ knowledge of abusive behavior. Children were left unprotected despite credible accusations against priests. And church leaders withheld information from parishioners and fellow clergy.

The long-awaited report Wednesday on decades of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in three Massachusetts dioceses pointed to a web of institutional secrecy and denial designed to hide the scandal from the public.

The report by state Attorney General Andrea Campbell identified only a fraction of 270 priests that investigators linked with the abuse of nearly 1,000 children in the Worcester, Fall River, and Springfield dioceses, but some of the identified cases showed how church authorities avoided accountability and…

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — A Catholic Foundation executive has been arrested in Franklin County following an investigation into the online sexual abuse of a minor.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force confirmed the arrest of 49-year-old Scott Richard Hartman after executing a search warrant at his home on Wednesday.

Authorities said Hartman confessed to the allegations after being taken into custody.

The Catholic Foundation is a charitable and investment foundation that supports Catholic causes throughout the 23-county Diocese of Columbus. Hartman serves as the senior vice president and chief development officer for the organization.

Investigators said the case began in April when a teenage victim reported that she had engaged in an online relationship with Hartman to school counselors. Authorities said the relationship between the student and the suspect included text messages and video calls with video sex acts, along with the exchange of nude…

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Four weeks ago, I dropped off my younger daughter to start her freshman year at college. Parents of incoming freshmen at every school get versions of the same emails: about scheduling your kid’s move-in time and filling out forms for the health center and making sure to buy the extra-long sheets.

Parents of daughters get an extra assignment. It isn’t written down, but we all know what it is. In between buying shower caddies and LED lights, we have to give our girls a refresher course on Rape Prevention 101. Don’t leave your drink unattended at a party. Don’t walk home late at night by yourself. Make sure someone knows where you are. Watch out for your friends.

On move-in day, student volunteers wearing T-shirts in the school colors helpfully whisked my daughter’s suitcases, the single stuffed animal she brought to keep her company and her straining-at-the-seams IKEA bags up…

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BOSTON, MA, October 01, 2026 – A report released by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office has exposed decades-long systemic failures, institutional concealment and ongoing lapses in oversight, revealing that more than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children across the three dioceses.

Launched in 2019, the investigation into child sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester thoroughly reviewed every individual allegation alongside how diocesan leaders responded.

“We are deeply grateful to the courageous survivors who came forward to share their traumatic experiences with our office and made their voices heard in the pursuit of truth and accountability,” said Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell.

The report demonstrates that rather than ensuring the safety, physical wellbeing and mental health of vulnerable children, diocesan leaders consistently prioritized protecting institutional reputation and offending clergy instead.

“No institution should ever put its own interests above the safety and…

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SPRINGFIELD – Bishop William D. Byrne released a statement following the long-anticipated release of the attorney general’s report on clergy sexual abuse Wednesday, Sept. 30. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell released the findings of a grand jury investigation into clergy sexual abuse in the dioceses of Springfield, Fall River and Worcester. The Archdiocese of Boston was previously the subject of a grand jury investigation in 2002 after media reports shed light on clergy sexual abuse.

The investigation, which began in 2019, found that in the three dioceses, more than 1000 children were victims of abuse, over a span of decades.

Bishop Byrne, who made transparency and the promotion of healing for survivors of abuse a priority since coming to Springfield in 2020, said he welcomes the recommendations of the attorney general’s office.

“Today’s report, released by the Attorney General’s Office is a humbling reminder of the need for continued…

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The state’s largest religious denomination filed its request after spending $2 million in legal fees — and before facing a related creditors’ lawsuit seeking access to an estimated $500 million in local parish assets.

Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese is marking this week’s second anniversary of its request for a Chapter 11 financial reorganization plan by asking a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to dismiss its case, which so far has cost $2 million in legal fees “with no end in sight,” church lawyers said.

The state’s largest religious denomination had filed its initial call for help on Sept. 30, 2024, when it said a past series of nearly 70 priest misconduct settlements had reduced its monetary holdings by half — to about $35 million — with more than 100 other abuse claims dating as far back as 1950 yet to be resolved.

Two years later, attorneys for the…

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The lawsuit over an alleged brutal gang rape at Cornell University has sparked collective fury — and a recognition that, despite the #MeToo movement, decades of protest, and pledges from college administrators to do better, not enough has changed when it comes to addressing campus sexual assault.

“The problem doesn’t go away,” said Amanda Walsh, deputy director of external affairs at the Boston-based Victim Rights Law Center, “but the conversation does.”

Now, it’s back.

At many college campuses around the state, students, professors, and administrators are talking about the Cornell case. But while some conversations are out in the open, others are unfolding privately.

“Generally in classes, people are more hesitant to bring up things that are politically sensitive,” said Stella Lei, 22, a Harvard University senior in her last semester who cofounded Take Back Harvard, a digital archive that…

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An investigation by the state’s attorney general found decades of sex abuse of nearly 1,000 children over a century across three Massachusetts dioceses.

More than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children over a century across three Massachusetts dioceses, according to a report released on Wednesday by the state attorney general.

Church officials in the three dioceses — Fall River, Springfield and Worcester — knew priests and other church personnel were sexually abusing children but didn’t do enough to prevent it or examine institutional failures, the report said.

Accounts of pervasive child sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston rocked the Catholic Church in the early 2000s and led to years of scrutiny of priests who served in the archdiocese. But the new report looked beyond Boston to three other areas of the state, and the investigation found that the church continued to fall short of…

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Seven-year investigation probes priest sex abuse in dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester

A scathing state report issued Wednesday chronicles a century-long nightmare of child abuse in Catholic parishes throughout Massachusetts, revealing how church leadership systematically concealed decades of predation by scores of priests, who victimized hundreds of children in nearly every corner of the state.

The report concludes an exhaustive, seven-year investigation by the state attorney general’s office, which found evidence that more than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children over several decades in the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester. Church leaders enabled the abuse by shielding predators and concealing allegations, the report found.

Previous probes had revealed similar failures in the Archdiocese of Boston; this investigation, launched in 2019, offers the most comprehensive accounting yet of how Catholic dioceses…

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Summary

• Attorney general says dioceses long knew of abuse
• Most abuse occurred before 2002
• AG calls for end to statute of limitations for civil claims involving childhood sexual abuse

More than 270 Catholic clerics sexually abused ​nearly 1,000 children across three Massachusetts dioceses over decades, according to an investigative report the state’s attorney general released ‌on Wednesday.

The report, opens new tab provided what Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called the first full public accounting of the abuse and institutional failures that allowed it to proliferate for more than half a century at the Catholic dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester.

Most of the abuse detailed in the report occurred before 2002, ​the year the clergy sex abuse scandal burst onto the international stage due to a Pulitzer Prize-winning report by the ​Boston Globe on how officials at the Roman Catholic…

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Andrea Joy Campbell’s office announced the findings of their investigation into child sexual abuse in the Catholic dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester.

Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s office released a bombshell report on Catholic diocese in Worcester, Springfield and Fall River.

A Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office investigation found evidence that more than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children across the dioceses of Worcester, Springfield and Fall River over several decades.

Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell released the findings Wednesday following a seven-year investigation into clergy sexual abuse and how church leaders responded to allegations.

[CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL 203-PAGE REPORT.]

“Behind every one of those numbers is a child whose safety was violated, a family that was changed forever and a survivor who carried that abuse for years, and in many cases decades. They continue to carry this trauma even today,”…

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Hundreds of clergy members of the Worcester, Springfield and Fall River Catholic dioceses abused nearly 1,000 children over the course of decades, an investigation by the Massachusetts attorney general’s office found. 

The investigation, beginning in 2019, detailed evidence that 270 clergy members abused nearly 1,000 children across all three dioceses for around 70 years, with some cases dating as far back as the 1950s, Attorney General Andrea Campbell said at a press conference Wednesday. 

“For years, the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester knew that children were being abused by priests, and they did not do what they should have done to stop it,” Campbell said during the press conference. “Instead, too often they protected the reputation of the church, rather than protecting children.” 

The report demonstrated repeated failure by church leadership to properly respond to allegations of child sexual abuse by their priests, in…

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The report details the institutional failures that allowed the widespread abuse, publicly exposed in 2002, to occur

Attorney General Andrea Campbell has released a new report detailing nearly 1,000 cases of child sex abuse allegedly committed by 270 clergy across the Fall River, Worcester and Springfield dioceses, first publicly exposed in 2002, and the institutional failures that allowed the abuse to occur and continue.

The report highlighted several institutional failures within the three Catholic dioceses as well as the Boston Archdiocese that allowed “widespread abuse” to occur. It also identifies remaining gaps in oversight, accountability, and transparency across the three dioceses.

Read the report here. 

“For decades, survivors of clergy sexual abuse, including those who are no longer alive, have carried the devastating consequences of abuse, while the institutions entrusted with their care too often failed to protect them. This report provides for the first time a public…

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A state investigation found evidence that more than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children across the Catholic Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester over the course of a century, the state attorney general’s office announced Wednesday.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell said the investigation, which began in 2019, identified instances in which diocesan leaders failed to act on allegations and warning signs or transferred accused priests to other parishes without disclosing the reasons for their transfers.

Campbell’s office said while previous probes had exposed institutional failures in the Archdiocese of Boston, the AG’s investigation is the “first comparable public accounting of the institutional failures within the Fall River, Springfield and Worcester dioceses.”

The attorney general did not bring charges against any of those mentioned, however, citing “significant barriers” from Massachusetts’ statute of limitations and other laws.

“This investigation was not about demonizing a faith…

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BOSTON (WPRI) — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has released an extensive report documenting decades of institutional failures, following a multi-year investigation into child sexual abuse allegations within the Catholic Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester.

The 203-page report alleges more than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children across the three dioceses over the course of a century and identifies instances in which leaders neglected to act on warning signs.

Based on the investigation’s findings, the Massachusetts AG’s Office is calling on the Fall River, Springfield and Worcester dioceses to make changes in order to protect children, increase transparency and bolster oversight. It also provides recommendations to strengthen state law and offer more avenues for survivors to seek justice.

While acknowledging reforms the Catholic Church has implemented…

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A total of 216 Catholic children of the Worcester Diocese were abused, according to Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office.

The Attorney General’s office on Wednesday released a long-awaited report detailing how more than 270 religious leaders in the Worcester, Fall River and Springfield dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church abused more than 1,000 children over a span of about a century. Of those accused leaders, 90 of them served in the Worcester Diocese, according to the report.

Beginning in 2019, the investigation into the three dioceses involved interviewing more than 100 people and reviewing more than 300,000 pages of documents. New criminal charges, however, won’t be brought forward due to legal limitations, Campbell wrote in her report.

In the wake of the report, the attorney general says she supports scrapping a $20,000 charitable immunity cap for civil claims…

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The Catholic Archdiocese of New York and the law firm representing 1,300 sex abuse survivors are floating a new deal that will have a carve out for less than 30 claimants in the proposed $800 million out-of- court global settlement fund.

In a bid to salvage its out-of-court global settlement, the Archdiocese of New York and the law firm representing 1,300 survivors of sex abuse from clergy are exploring a new deal with a carveout for a tiny number of victims who are not willing to sign onto the original proposal.

But if there are any more defections from the original class by Sept. 30, the Archdiocese will declare bankruptcy, which the law firm representing the class warned could tie up the settlement for years, according to a 37-page document viewed by this publication.

In a letter to members of the class, the law firm Jefferson Anderson &…

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InfoVaticana exclusively publishes the only known document in which Pope Francis refers in his own handwriting to the canonical process against Father Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the Institute of the Incarnate Word. It is a brief handwritten note dated August 16, 2023, four months after the founder’s death, addressed to Father Martín Prado, IVE, with whom the Pontiff maintained a friendship for years. Father Prado has now circulated it among the members of the Institute, accompanied by a written reflection that we reproduce in full below.

The document is of historical significance because of the magnitude of what is at stake. The Religious Family of the Incarnate Word, born in San Rafael (Argentina) in 1984, is present in 45 countries and brings together more than 3,000 religious among the male branch, the Servants of the Lord and of the Virgin of Matará, and the Third Order Secular. Few charisms…

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The controversy that has arisen within the Institute of the Incarnate Word revolves around an apparently simple question: was Father Carlos Miguel Buela condemned? The answer requires distinguishing between what the courts decided, what was eventually published, and what the founder’s death left without effect. The documents released by the pontifical delegates in recent days allow each step of the case to be reconstructed with precision.

The court of first instance

On 14 May 2020, Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló, then pontifical commissioner of the Institute, established by decree a Special Penal Tribunal to examine the complaints lodged against the founder. It was a collegiate tribunal delegated by the Holy See, not a diocesan tribunal or an administrative instance of the Dicastery.

After a procedure in which the accused, his lawyer and numerous witnesses were heard, the tribunal handed down its sentence on 20 July 2021. It found it proven…

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The congregation must undertake a process of institutional purification after a canonical process determined that its founder, Carlos Miguel Buela, committed abuse against multiple victims.

ROME — The Holy See has confirmed that Argentine priest Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE), committed abuse against several individuals.

The Vatican reached this conclusion following a canonical process and has ordered the religious family, which has been under Vatican intervention for more than seven years and without self-governance, to undertake a path of renewal.

The decision was communicated during a meeting in Rome on Sept. 14 involving the pontifical delegates overseeing the menʼs and womenʼs branches of the congregation, provincial superiors of both institutes, and representatives of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The decision was made public Tuesday and…

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“We can no longer continue putting forward fallacious arguments that lead us away from the truth.”

Officials with oversight of the troubled Institute of the Incarnate Word underlined Thursday that Church tribunals reached “moral certainty” that the order’s late founder was responsible for abuse, amid ongoing denial from some members of the group.

A statement on the IVE’s official website, dated Sept. 24, said the clarification was intended to be both an act of justice toward those harmed by Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela’s actions and to accurately inform the institute’s members as the order undergoes reform.

The statement was issued after a Sept. 14 meeting in Rome between the pontifical delegates overseeing the IVE and its female counterpart, the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, the provincial superiors of the two institutes, and officials from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of…

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Pope Leo XIV meets in Lourdes, France, with seven victims of clerical sexual abuse, and expresses his closeness to those who suffer the “wound of abuse.”

On Sunday evening, Pope Leo XIV met in Lourdes with four men and three women who suffered abuse by members of the clergy.

The seven victims endured abuse in parishes, boarding schools, congregations, or ecclesial movements.

Their different stories and life journeys first intersected on September 14, when they met to get to know one another and discuss the experiences, expectations, and requests they would share with the Pope.

The meeting took place at the bishop’s residence, a short walk from the Marian Shine of Our Lady of Lourdes, and lasted two hours, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Among those present was Bishop Gérard Le Stang of Amiens, president of the Council for the Prevention of and Fight against Paedophilia within the French Bishops’…

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[Click here to see video of the Pope’s remarks on YouTube,]

Question from Cyriac Zeller, I-Media:

Good evening, Your Holiness. Yesterday, during a press conference, the victims you met told us that you had acknowledged to them the systemic nature of sexual abuse in the church. Is that indeed the case? Could you explain your position on this? Do you consider sexual abuse in the Church to be systemic?

Answer from Pope Leo XIV:

I would say, without wanting to contradict anyone, as I think it is very important, I would first of all like to say that in meeting with those seven victims, I had asked them to also help me to express to other victims the willingness—myself and of the Church—to listen and to walk with them as they look for healing, recognizing the pain that has been caused in their lives because of situations of abuse.

…

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About 2,000 people have sought reparations from a French body addressing church abuse

PARIS — As Pope Leo XIV prepares to meet Sunday with survivors of sexual abuse by clergy in France, an independent body created to address decades of church abuse is wrapping up its work and taking stock.

France’s Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation, or INIRR announced this week that about 2,000 people who reported being sexually abused by priests or other church representatives have sought reparations .

France’s Catholic bishops’ conference agreed to provide compensation after a 2021 report estimated some 330,000 children were sexually abused over 70 years by priests or other church-related figures in France. The report described a “systemic” cover-up by church officials and urged the French Catholic Church to respect the rule of law.

Here’s a look at how France addressed the abuse, by the numbers:

…

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On Sunday in Lourdes, Pope Leo XIV met seven survivors of clerical sexual abuse, who praised the meeting as helping to bring reconciliation — even if there is still a lot of work to be done fighting the scourge of sex abuse in the Church.

Five of the seven survivors spoke to journalists, including Vatican News, after the meeting, describing the pope as a man of “incredible empathy” and “deep listening.” The other two are women who have asked to remain anonymous.

Oliver Mardi, an activist and co-founder of Voix Libérées de Touraine, a group created to support and advocate for victims of clerical sexual abuse, explained that the meeting was initially supposed to be one hour but in the end it ran to one hour and fifty minutes.

“In his response, he expressed his commitment, speaking first about his emotions,” Mardi said.

“He said he was profoundly affected, deeply wounded. He…

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A meeting with seven victims of abuse, scheduled for one hour, lasted for almost two and ended with several praising the Pope for his ability to listen.

Pope Leo XIV spent a hectic third day in France on Sunday encouraging its hard-pressed bishops and priests, meeting victims of the sexual abuse scandal and defending the Church’s opposition to the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia.

In the Lourdes sanctuary known for reportedly miraculous cures, he said a Mass for 150,000 pilgrims on a field across from the grotto where Bernadette Soubirous said the Virgin Mary appeared to her in 1858.

The US-born Pope was enthusiastically received in the southwestern French town after two days in Paris, where he led a prayer vigil for 80,000 young people on Friday evening and saw an estimated 800,000 pack the Champs Élysées for his Mass on the Place de la Concorde on…

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[A nine-minute video interview with Pau University emeritus professor Marc Artzrouni of Ending Clergy Abuse, criticizing Pope Leo’s decision not to meet with representatives of survivors’ groups, and urging that the Catholic church adopt zero tolerance of clergy abuse as its global policy.]

After two days in Paris, where he drew hundreds of thousands of worshippers, Pope Leo XIV is continuing his visit to France in the southwestern pilgrimage town of Lourdes. There, he is due to meet privately with survivors of clergy sexual abuse. His four-day trip is the first official papal visit to France in nearly two decades. For more reaction, we can speak to Marc Artzrouni, the French representative for the global coalition “Ending Clergy Abuse”.

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Campaigners criticised the decision to see seven people privately at the pilgrimage site, rather than representatives of survivors’ organisations

The Pope met seven survivors of sexual abuse by priests on the third day of his visit to France, but campaigners accused him of shutting out groups pressing for wider reform.

The meeting came five years after an independent inquiry estimated that 330,000 children had been sexually abused by clergy or lay workers in the French church between 1950 and 2020. Its findings exposed decades of cover-ups and institutional failures to confront abuse.

Campaigners criticised Leo’s decision to meet seven people privately in Lourdes, a pilgrimage site, rather than publicly receiving representatives of survivors’ organisations.

Alain Esquerre, a spokesman for one survivors’ group, said: “We wanted a collective approach to speak for all victims and obtain two things from the Pope: to bear witness to the…

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Pope Leo met with seven survivors of sexual abuse by members of the French clergy this evening in Lourdes at the bishop’s residence in Lourdes, France. 

The pope spent almost two hours with the victims, in a meeting reportedly only planned to last half that time. According to a Vatican press communique, the pope first met each survivor individually to hear their stories and proposals for addressing and preventing abuse, then spoke with the full group for about 30 minutes. Some of the survivors spoke to a limited group of French journalists after the meeting, saying that the pope was sincere and seemed committed to continuing to work towards prevention and justice for victims.

One of the survivors, Jérôme Guillement, said on French TV station LCI (La Chaîne Info) after the group’s meeting with the pope, “There was something sincere about him. With him, every word was chosen, every…

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After meeting for two hours with Pope Leo XIV in Lourdes, seven survivors of clerical sexual abuse speak to the press about their experiences and the Pope’s empathy and concern for those who have suffered the scrouge of abuse.

An hour after meeting with Pope Leo XIV in Lourdes on Sunday evening, the seven survivors of clerical sexual abuse shared the emotions of their encounter with the Pope, whom they called a man of “deep listening” and “incredible empathy,” who was “struck” and “wounded” by the stories he heard.

Five of the seven victims who spent two hours in dialogue and prayer with the Pope in Lourdes on Sunday met this evening with a small group of international news outlets—including Vatican News—at a hotel in the Pyrenean town. They described their experience with Pope Leo XIV and the preparations for this important meeting.

A meeting planned with the Pope

“We…

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The pontiff “expressed his solidarity with them and, through them, with all those who have suffered and continue to suffer from the wounds of abuse,” the Vatican said.

Lourdes, France — Pope Leo XIV met seven French victims of clerical sexual abuse on Sunday, making a gesture of solidarity and reconciliation at a shrine world-famous for its healing waters.

The nearly two-hour encounter took place at the residence of the local bishop, where Leo is staying for his two nights at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, one of the victims, Jérôme Guillement, said, “There was something sincere about [Pope Leo]. With him, every word was carefully chosen; every word had meaning. … There were a lot of emotions.”

According to the Holy See Press Office, Leo spent an hour and a half speaking to the four men and three women individually, before…

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On Sept. 27, Pope Leo XIV met with seven victims of sexual abuse suffered at the hands of Catholic priests and lay members of the church in France, which has had one of the most public reckonings of the clergy sex abuse in the world.

In the city of Lourdes, home to the Marian shrine that draws millions of pilgrims in pursuit of healing each year, the pope met individually with each of the seven victims — four men and three women selected by the Bishops’ Conference of France — before addressing them together as a group.

Though Leo had met with victims of clerical sex abuse at the Vatican and during his June trip to Spain, his 90-minute meeting with victims in France was especially high stakes due to the local church’s robust response to the sex abuse crisis. The response is sometimes…

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[This important investigation includes a very useful list of nearly 2,000 school-based cases filed during the New York initial lookback window, searchable by plaintiff, defendant, county, and school name, and with links to the court files for each case.]

74 Investigation: A law that opened a window for survivors to seek justice for past abuse also exposed how deeply schools enabled alleged predators.

This article was published in partnership with Mother Jones.

Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of child sexual abuse.

Going to high school in Dutchess County, New York, in the 1960s, there was no late bus. For one star athlete at Our Lady of Lourdes High School, that meant regularly hitchhiking the 25 miles between school and home after practice.

It was during those lonely treks, he said, that his new coach and gym teacher, Vincent Dutkowski, would stalk him in his car, offering…

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Pope Leo XIV waved at believers on his way to mass on Sunday in the French pilgrimage town of Lourdes where he is to meet victims of clerical sex abuse on a third day of an official visit to France.

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day trip to France, a secular country with deep Catholic roots, marking the first official papal visit there in nearly two decades.

The first US pontiff is expected to meet privately with seven victims after promising to further efforts to reform the Church in the wake of the global sexual abuse scandal.

Domitille Bardoul, 26, woke up before dawn to wait for prayers in the southwestern town at the foot of the Pyrenees, after taking the train down from Paris.

“It’s very beautiful that the pope is going to listen to them,” she said of his meeting the…

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During the past several years, an increasing number of internationally respected evangelical and Pentecostal leaders have resigned or have been removed from office following allegations or confirmed cases of sexual misconduct.

Some cases involved abuse of minors, others involved sexual misconduct with employees or persons under spiritual authority. In still other cases, leaders themselves were not accused of abuse but lost credibility because they refused transparent investigations or attempted to handle allegations internally.

For many years, evangelicals often looked at the abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church as though it were primarily someone else’s problem. It is now painfully evident that it is not. Sin, abuse of power, and institutional self-protection are not denominational problems; they are human problems. Whenever spiritual authority becomes insufficiently accountable, the conditions for abuse exist.

The Catholic Church has paid an enormous price for decades of delayed reporting, internal handling of criminal allegations, lack…

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Summary

• Pope Leo says Church must heal wounds inflicted within its ranks
• Pope, visiting France, to meet victims of abuse by clergy
• Crushing 2021 report on abuse in French Church sparked nationwide shock
• Victims sceptical papal meeting will spur quick action

Lourdes, France – Pope Leo on Sunday urged the Catholic Church to admit its own ​failings and heal “deep wounds” inflicted within its ranks, hours before he was set to meet victims of child abuse by priests in France.

Leo, ‌addressing crowds stretching out over a large field near the famed Catholic shrine in Lourdes, said the Church must have the courage to face its past but did not directly reference abuse scandals in France that sparked nationwide shock.

“In order to heal the deep wounds, infidelities and painful errors that have occurred within (the Church), we must humbly place ourselves under the Lord’s purifying…

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Leo XIV is scheduled to meet with seven survivors of sexual abuse in Lourdes on Sunday. Although French bishops were once at the forefront on this issue, acknowledging the systemic nature of the abuse, associations now denounce a step backwards.

They all knelt before a red cross erected for the occasion at the foot of the Lourdes basilica. It was cold that Saturday in November 2021 in this town in the Pyrénées, which, since the nineteenth century, has become a major pilgrimage destination for Catholics from France and around the world.

Without liturgical vestments, simply dressed in black suits with Roman collars visible, bishops from every diocese in France bowed that day in a symbolic gesture to honor the victims of sexual abuse within the Church. For several days, French prelates, gathered for their semiannual conference, had discussed the systemic nature of these crimes. This was a global first for…

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Saint Bernadette auditorium at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes
Sunday, 27 September 2026

I am very pleased to meet you, dear brothers in the episcopate, in this blessed place, just a short distance from the grotto where the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette, and where you regularly gather for your plenary Assemblies.  By choosing this place, you clearly express your desire to place the Church in France under the protection of the Mother of God, the Immaculate Virgin, so that she may guide her more surely according to the Lord’s will.  Indeed, there is no better way to come to Jesus than through Mary. Everything about her leads us to her Son.

In this way, you carry forward the heritage you have received from your forefathers in the faith, stretching back to the earliest times of the evangelization of your country.  Indeed, devotion to the Mother of God…

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French bishops took “courageous” steps when faced with “the painful scourge of abuse of minors,” Pope Leo XIV told the high-ranking clerics before his scheduled meeting with survivors at the Catholic shrine of Lourdes.

Around 150,000 attended the Mass celebrated by Pope Leo at the shrine of Lourdes during the third day of his four-day visit to France.

The shrine is venerated by Catholics as a place of healing. Many victims of sexual abuse have also traveled to the site, located near the Spanish border, in recent years as they seek to recover from their trauma.

On Sunday, Leo urged respect for life, including for the sick and frail, in what was seen as veiled criticism of euthanasia and abortion.

“Your crutches, your wheelchairs and your hidden tears are not obstacles; instead, they are the very place where you are fully respected and welcomed,” Leo said. “Lourdes…

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Pope Leo has called on French bishops to root out the “scourge” of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church, telling them to “maintain the greatest vigilance”, ahead of a meeting with abuse survivors.

The Pope delivered the message to bishops during a private meeting at the Sanctuary of Our Holy Lady of Lourdes, a holy site in southern France, on the third day of his four-day official visit to France.

A 2021 inquiry found that clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as children in France over 70 years.

The Pope said Mass in front of thousands of worshippers in Lourdes, before he was scheduled to meet survivors of abuse privately later.

Before giving Mass the Pope told the bishops: “You have faced with determination the painful scourge of abuse of minors committed by members of the clergy or within an ecclesial context.

“It…

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Catholic church must reckon with its ‘painful errors’, pontiff tells crowd in Lourdes during four-day tour

The pope has called on the Catholic church to heal “deep wounds” and “painful errors”, before a meeting with survivors of child sexual abuse as he continues his four-day visit to France.

Addressing a crowd in a large field near the Catholic shrine of Lourdes on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called on the church to reckon with its past, without directly referencing sexual abuse scandals in France that affected at least 330,000 children over seven decades.

“In order to heal the deep wounds, infidelities and ⁠painful errors that have occurred within [the church], we must humbly place ourselves under the Lord’s purifying gaze,” the first US pope told the estimated crowd of 150,000 people.

Leo is due to privately meet seven survivors of child sexual abuse by French clergy on Sunday after…

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The idea for the chaplaincy, inspired by similar projects in Ireland, emerged from the “collective thoughts of survivors living in the Diocese of Plymouth.”

The Diocese of Plymouth is developing the first chaplaincy in the English and Welsh Catholic Church for survivors of sexual, spiritual, emotional and institutional abuse.

It will be a “pastoral ministry that seeks to offer faith-sensitive, independent and survivor-centred support,” explained the diocesan safeguarding team in their summer newsletter.

“This ministry recognises that survivors’ journeys are complex and that the Church has a responsibility to respond with humility, care and integrity,” said the team.

“This project is truly unique in the Catholic Church in England and Wales seeking to achieve meaningful change in the way the Church responds to and supports those who have suffered harm,” the letter continued.

Martin Christmas-Nelson, head of safeguarding for the diocese, told The Tablet the concept of the chaplaincy “was  born…

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[See also the text of the letter by the Rupnik victims.]

In an open letter addressed to Pope Leo XIV, five alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Slovenian Father Marko Rupnik said the silence and lack of information regarding the artist’s canonical trial added to their suffering.

The letter, which was shared with OSV News Sept. 23 by their lawyer, Laura Sgro, said the “prolonged silence” they have experienced was “a further and ongoing form of violence that bears down like a heavy boulder on the violence we have already endured.”

“Sexual, physical, psychological, and spiritual violence; an enduring violence inflicted upon the soul, to which is now added this new and agonizing violence of silence and abandonment by the justice system,” the alleged victims said.

The letter was signed by Gloria Branciani, Mirjam Kovac, Sister Samuelle, Vida Bernard and an anonymous alleged victim using the…

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Mosaics by Marko Rupnik, a Slovenian priest-artist, were covered up after at least 20 women accused him of sexual and psychological abuse. He is now on trial.

Paris – The gold-flecked mosaics adorning the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary were installed in 2008 for the 150th anniversary of what the Catholic Church recognizes as miraculous apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes — one of the faith’s most sacred pilgrimage sites.

But when Pope Leo XIV visits on Saturday, the mosaics will be conspicuously covered. Their creator, Slovenian priest-artist Marko Rupnik, has been accused by at least 20 women — including current and former Catholic nuns — of sexual, physical and psychological abuse.

Rupnik, 71, is one the most prominent living Catholic artists, and the mosaics in Lourdes are among his many works housed in more than 200 churches across the globe. He was openly celebrated and championed…

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Court in Mendoza sentences former nun Kumiko Kosaka to 20 years in prison for her role in the sexual abuse of deaf children at a religious Instituto Próvolo in Mendoza Province.

A court in Mendoza on Thursday sentenced former nun Kumiko Kosaka to 20 years in prison for sexually abusing deaf children at a religious institute in western province.

Kosaka, 51, was initially acquitted in 2023 of sex crimes committed against children at the Instituto Próvolo in Luján de Cuyo between 2005 and 2016.

But last month, Mendoza’s Supreme Court overturned the acquittal and ordered that she be sentenced.

She was found guilty of two counts of sexual abuse as an accomplice and three as the principal offender.

Kosaka, who left the religious order after she was accused, appeared in court accompanied only by her lawyer.

She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, an AFP reporter observed.

After sentencing, she…

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A former Catholic nun was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in Argentina on Thursday over a notorious clerical abuse scandal involving a boarding school for hearing-impaired children.

Kumiko Kosaka, a Japanese national who is now aged 51, was convicted at her second trial of aggravated sexual abuse and of covering up for priests who abused children aged between four and 17.

The Provolo affair, so-called after the Antonio Provolo Institute in Mendoza, where dozens of children suffered horrific abuse for decades, rocked Argentina when it came to light a decade ago.

At the first trial held in 2019, two priests, a gardener and a former choir boy were given prison sentences of between ten and 45 years.

Revelations from those proceedings led to a second trial in 2023 of a group of nuns and female staff members accused of being complicit in, and of covering up the abuse.

All nine,…

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Pope Leo XIV on Friday arrives in France for a four-day visit – his fifth Apostolic journey since becoming pontiff last year – during which he hopes to repair the Catholic Church’s standing after sexual abuse scandals while also addressing issues such as the need to regulate AI. FRANCE 24 guides you through his visit.

• Motto for the visit: “That the world may have life.” The motto, The Vatican News writes, is a “a call to hope and communion, encouraging people to overcome divisions in order to share peace, reconciliation, and fraternity, signs of new life in the world”.
• Main themes: Europe, peace and unity
• Security: In Paris alone, some 14,000 police officers, gendarmes, and military personnel and 2,500 firefighters will be on duty while the pope moves around the city on Friday. That number will only be slightly lower during his Mass at the…

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The Pope is making the first official papal visit to France in 18 years, during which he is expected to meet survivors of sexual abuse, EU leaders and large crowds of worshippers.

Church bells will quite literally be ringing across France this Friday morning as Pope Leo XIV lands on the tarmac of Paris-Orly airport for the first official papal visit to the country in 18 years.

The Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF) described the decision to ring bells for seven minutes “as a simple and symbolic gesture” to mark the beginning of the Pope’s apostolic journey and allow people “to take part” from wherever they are.

From addressing EU leaders and meeting with victims of sexual violence within the Church to parading through Paris on his popemobile, the pontiff has a packed four days ahead of him.

The paternal grandmother of the Chicago-Born Pope Leo XIV — who is…

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In short:

Former Catholic priest Robert Hickman has been jailed in Western Australia for sexually abusing two girls in Perth in 1990.

The 81-year-old was previously jailed in New South Wales for similar offences.

In a statement to the court, one of the victims described her abuser as a “very evil man”.

A former Catholic priest and serial paedophile who sexually abused two young girls in foster care 36 years ago has been jailed for more than two years.

Robert James Hickman, 81, was previously imprisoned for sexual offences in New South Wales against multiple victims.

Hickman had pleaded guilty to sexual penetration of a child, and indecent dealing with a child in Perth in 1990.

WA District Court Judge Karen Shepherd described his actions as a “breach of trust” given his position, and too serious to justify a suspended term.

He was sentenced to two years and six months…

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Pope Leo XIV is to begin an official visit to France on Friday, with several thorny issues hanging over the trip, from clerical sexual abuse to the country’s new assisted dying law.

Here are some of the key issues the pontiff is expected to face while on the first official visit to France by a head of the Roman Catholic Church in 18 years:

Clerical abuse

The Vatican announced in August that Pope Leo XIV will meet victims of clerical sexual abuse during his visit.

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics has promised to further efforts to reform the Church in the wake of the global sexual abuse scandal.

A 2021 inquiry found that clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as minors in France, over the span of 70 years.

The Church’s reputation has since been hit by further scandals, including a…

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Wendy Little Bear is one of about 100 survivors of sexual abuse, including roughly 10 members of the Wabanaki Nations, who reached a recent multimillion-dollar settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

For decades, Wendy Little Bear, 56, struggled to cross the bridge leading to Indian Island. Just over the bridge to the Penobscot Nation’s reservation stands St. Ann’s Catholic Church.

When Little Bear sees the church, she remembers the year she spent living on Indian Island with her family at age 7 — the year she said both a priest and a nun sexually abused her. Her family moved away after her father discovered the priest’s abuse, she explained on a recent morning, but the memories stayed with her.

Little Bear is one of about 100 survivors of sexual abuse, including roughly 10 members of the Wabanaki Nations, who reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese…

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It’s not clear when the Vatican will decide or whether the Vatican will reveal the results.

The interview phase of the Vatican’s investigation into how Baton Rouge Bishop Michael Duca handled an accusation of sexual misconduct by a priest has ended and the material has been sent to Rome, a witness told the Register.

Luke Zumo, who filed the complaint that triggered the investigation, said he received an email message Monday, Sept. 21, from New Orleans Archbishop James Checchio saying that the prelate has completed his report and sent it to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops. The archbishop was responding to an email message Zumo sent late last week requesting an update, Zumo said.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans declined comment Tuesday afternoon. A spokesman for the Diocese of Baton Rouge contacted Monday night did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zumo told the Register…

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Addressing the scourge of sexual abuse, the archbishop of Panama requested the services of the Transparency Commission, a project sponsored by Notre Dame Law School and Madrid’s Villanueva University.

[See also the executive summary (in English) and the report (in Spanish).]

The archbishop of Panama, José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta, stated that “we cannot remain silent in the face of abuse” during his presentation of the report “Assessment of Institutional Responses (AIR) in cases of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable persons” within the Archdiocese of Panama between 2001 and 2025.

The report by the Transparency Commission (TC), a pilot project and the first from an interdisciplinary group of independent experts on addressing and preventing abuse within ecclesial settings, was presented on Sept. 22 at the Santa María La Antigua University auditorium in Panama City.

Speaking during the presentation, Ulloa emphasized:…

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Statute of limitations reform may finally come to Ohio, but the Catholic Church lobby and the insurance industry will likely push back, fearing lawsuits from decades-old childhood sexual abuse cases

The controversial case of former priest and confessed rapist Geoff Drew could result in another law change in Ohio: statute of limitations reform.

Ohio Sen. Bill Blessing, a Republican from Colerain Township, said he is willing to sponsor legislation to allow prosecutors to file criminal charges in childhood sexual abuse cases regardless of when it happened. This comes after prosecutors could not charge Drew for sexually abusing a second alleged victim because the statute of limitations had expired.

“This issue just continues to fester,” Blessing said. “It’s not going to get any better for anyone until we move beyond that, and that includes the church.”

Blessing also wants to eliminate time limits for victims to sue their abusers and the…

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A janitor at Our Lady of Lourdes who said she was sexually assaulted and raped multiple times in 2025, claimed Father David Sanchez dismissed her concerns.

Father David Sanchez, the pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes, has resigned amid a lawsuit accusing church leadership and the Archdiocese of Louisville of mishandling allegations of sexual abuse.

According to a letter obtained by WHAS11 and distributed by Archbishop Shelton Fabre, Sanchez resigned as pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes effective Wednesday.

“I am fully aware that the past few days have been a difficult time,” Fabre wrote. “While Sanchez remains a priest in good standing, he does not want to be the source of further unrest in the parish.”

Fabre said he accepted Sanchez’s resignation and placed him on administrative leave.

Father John Schwartzlose, the parish’s associate pastor, has been appointed temporary administrator.

“These appointments will likely continue until July of 2027…

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Facing concerned parents and calls for reform, St. Tammany Parish School Board members plan to launch a districtwide investigation into how schools and administrators are complying with rules for reporting child abuse after two Lyon Elementary administrators pleaded guilty for failing to do so.

During a seven-hour special meeting Monday evening at the CJ Schoen Administrative Complex in Covington, the board said it will vote next month to hire a third-party firm to probe all 55 schools and the district’s central office for “compliance with administrative processes, communications and mandatory reporting.”

The school system confirmed Monday that Lauryn Faciane, 50, the former principal of Lyon, and Tonya Barth, 55, who previously served as the school’s assistant principal, are no longer employed by the district.

Both were arrested in May and later pleaded guilty to charges of failure to report abuse of a child. Each had been on administrative leave and…

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About 2,000 people who reported being sexually abused by priests or other church representatives have sought reparations from a French independent body created to address decades of abuse, the organization said Tuesday as it prepares to end its five-year mission.

The Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation, or INIRR, said its work extended beyond financial compensation to include psychological support.

INIRR’s report comes ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s four-day visit to France, beginning Friday, during which he is expected to meet privately with seven survivors of sexual abuse by priests and other Catholic personnel.

France’s Catholic bishops’ conference agreed to provide reparations after a 2021 report estimated some 330,000 children were sexually abused over 70 years by priests or other church-related figures in France. The report described a “systemic” cover-up by church officials and urged the French Catholic Church to respect the rule of law in France.

Here’s a…

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Two priests who served at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Springfield have been removed from ministry after separate allegations of improper relationships were reported to law enforcement, according to the Diocese of Springfield.

In a statement issued Friday, the diocese said the Rev. Paolo Bagattini was suspended July 22 after it received a report alleging improper behavior with a minor that began in late 2022 while he was serving at the parish.

“He remains suspended at this time,” the Diocese of Springfield said.

In an Aug. 30, 2026, church newsletter, Bagattini said he could not return to Springfield because of health issues.

He said he was experiencing macular degeneration in his left eye and a heart condition that had caused him to lose consciousness three times. The condition required him to slow down and avoid stress.

Bagattini said he was consulting with doctors and that…

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[See also the letter by the Rupnik victims.]

Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Lourdes this week will be key to his message of respect for human life in all stages and conditions, which is the theme of his Sept. 25–28 pastoral visit to France. Images of the pontiff meeting ailing pilgrims will complement the trip’s official motto: “That the World May Have Life.”

But the visit to the world-famous shrine will also be the moment where he will most directly address clerical sexual abuse, a crisis that has cast a shadow over the Church in France since a landmark abuse report in 2021.

Lourdes will be the setting Sept. 27 for the pope’s private meeting with sex abuse victims and a speech to the French Catholic bishops, who continue to deal with fallout from the abuse crisis. The shrine itself has been touched by controversy in recent years due…

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He trusted a Catholic priest with his secrets in the sacred space of a confessional, but at the same time, he claims the cleric was abusing him.

This, according to a 19-year-old man who recently disclosed that not one, but two priests at Our Lady of Mount Carmel church had taken advantage of him sexually during a particularly vulnerable period. The Republican does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse.

One, the Rev. Paolo Bagattini, began abusing him when he was just 15, the victim alleges. He was the priest who took the boy’s confessions and sponsored him for his confirmation, an important rite of passage for Catholics.

The second, the Rev. Robert White, began abusing him only after he turned 18, according to the victim’s attorney.

“I have text messages from Father White to my client referencing coconut oil massages,” said Springfield…

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Saint Matthews KY – Louisville priest has resigned amid sexual abuse allegations against an employee at his Catholic church.

Gladis Garcia, who worked for Our Lady of Lourdes, claims in a lawsuit that she was raped and sexually harassed by her supervisor.

Her attorney, John Spalding, said when Garcia tried to report the abuse to the priest, he dismissed her claims and her employment was threatened.

“She went to the priest at Our Lady of Lourdes, Father David Sanchez, and reported it. And we allege that he didn’t do anything about it, that he did not believe her, that, in fact, he told her not to talk about it. Then he tried to silence her,” Spalding said.

“This case is about getting to the bottom of did they live up to their own standards, and if they did not, why not? and how can we prevent this from happening in…

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