Media Statements

As Pope Francis spoke publicly this week about the challenges facing the institutional Catholic Church in the United States, he took the opportunity to blame not abusers or their enablers, but the media for the “throwing gas on the fire.”

A self-admitted pedophile and ex-priest from a Chicago-based Catholic group has made the news again in East Timor as he evades criminal justice in the United States. We fear for the vulnerable children that this serial abuser may still have access to and call on those that hired, trained, and ordained him to use every resource at their disposal to bring this disgraced cleric home to face justice.

Statute of limitations (SOL) reform has hit another obstacle in Pennsylvania, this time due to a devastating clerical mistake that will set back recently-passed reforms until at least 2023. While this news is awful and disheartening, we hope that this terrible situation will not damper the spirits of the survivors and advocates who have fought for this critical reform.

A priest has been jailed in the UK for physically and sexually torturing a young student for years, enabled by Catholic officials. We are glad that these allegations came to light and that this dangerous abuser has been identified and removed. We now call on law enforcement to investigate the disturbing decisions that allowed this perpetrator to go unchecked and untethered for so long.

Two years ago, Oakland’s top catholic official promised that there had been no claims of abuse within his diocese since 1988. Despite that claim, five priests from the Diocese of Oakland have been accused of abuse since 2019 and yesterday we learned of two more allegations against Oakland priests, one of them still working. Now, we call for a secular investigation to determine the true scope of clergy abuse and cover-up in the Diocese of Oakland.

A former Catholic chaplain and Boy Scout leader has been sent to jail for the next four decades for sexually abusing at least six boys over the past forty years. This case illustrates that sexual predators are dangerous at any age and we are grateful that this serial predator will not be able to hurt any other children.

Catholic officials in California have banded together to fight “injustice.” This injustice is not racism, nor climate change, nor economic inequality.  No, to California bishops “injustice” is a 2019 law that gives victims of sexual violence an opportunity to have their day in court.

A priest accused of raping a ten-year-old child in 2008 has been suspended from ministry in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. We call on Catholic officials to bring the priest back from his extended visit abroad so that he can face justice here in the United States and to use every resource at their disposal to encourage other victims to come forward, make a report, and start healing.

The Pennsylvania State House today moved forward on much-needed reforms that can help provide justice for survivors of child sexual abuse and help prevent future cases from happening in the first place. We are grateful that this measure has advanced and look forward to the day when survivors in Pennsylvania will be allowed their day in court.

A catholic deacon from the Diocese of Brooklyn has been arrested and charged for soliciting sex from what he thought was a 14-year-old child. We are grateful to the investigators who have removed this dangerous man from the streets and call on church officials in Brooklyn to use every resource at their disposal to find other victims and encourage them to come forward and get help.