News Story of the Day

By Lisa Wangsness, GLOBE STAFF  JANUARY 04, 2017

In many ways, former Springfield bishop Thomas L. Dupre epitomized the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.

Dupre, who died Dec. 30 at 83, was the first Roman Catholic bishop to be indicted in the scandal, which burst into public view 15 years ago this month when the Globe’s Spotlight team began reporting about the church hierarchy’s protection of priests who abused minors. Advocates for victims say Dupre had cultivated a culture of secrecy that kept such abuse shrouded for years.

By Express News Service,  02nd January 2017, The New Indian Express

KOCHI: The police on Sunday arrested a 65-year-old priest on charges of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy.

The police said that Fr Basil Kuriakose,  who is also serving as principal of a school, abused the boy in the dormitory of the school’s hostel when the other students had gone home to spend Christmas holidays. He committed the crime while sleeping with the boy on December 21 night.  

Dana M Williams , Pacific Daily News, December 29, 2016

A 15th accuser filed a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Agana on Thursday, saying he was sexually abused by a former priest in 1987.

Washington state resident Edward Roberto Chan, 45, is suing former priest Raymond Cepeda and the archdiocese. According to the lawsuit, Chan became an altar boy in 1983, at the age of 12. When he was 15, he was scheduled to be counseled by Cepeda, who was the priest at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica.

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer, December 26, 2016, Albuquerque Journal

 SANTA FE, N.M. — A former Archdiocese of Santa Fe priest who surfaced in Morocco this year is the focus of a lawsuit filed last week by a New Mexico man who alleges that he was sexually abused as a teenager by Arthur Perrault at the University of Albuquerque campus.

Another lawsuit filed against the archdiocese last week alleges that a former Las Vegas priest sexually abused seven San Miguel County residents when they were children in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Dispatch Editorial, December 20, 2016, Columbus Dispatch

An Ohio Supreme Court ruling reducing damages a jury awarded to a child raped by her church pastor is a sickening miscarriage of justice: But the fault lies not with the justices, whose job is to determine whether laws are constitutional, not second-guess laws. Instead, this is a case of the Ohio legislature using too broad a brush.

It’s hard to believe that the General Assembly and Gov. Bob Taft intended to protect a predator when they enacted tort reform in 2005. The law aimed to curb frivolous lawsuits and runaway jury awards over things such as defective medications, unsafe cars and slip-and-fall accidents — massive civil damages that Republican lawmakers and the insurance industry said were chasing businesses out of Ohio, hurting the economy.

Editorial, The Tribune-Democrat, December 18, 2016

The attorney general’s investigation of child sexual abuse across the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese unveils two terrible truths.

Priests and others within the church had been assaulting countless children for decades.

And church leaders and law enforcement professionals were not prosecuting the offenders, instead choosing to seal up cases and move priests from parish to parish, allowing for more children to become victims.

By By John Garcia, December 15, 2016, ABC 7 News

ELGIN, Ill. (WLS) --A lawsuit has been filed against a minister in Elgin, Ill., who is accused of sexually abusing a woman.

The alleged victim, a former member of his church, said the pastor sexually abused her on numerous occasions, harassed her with text messages and then called her names in front of the congregation during his sermons.

One church in Elgin is home to a small congregation of members of the International Christian Fellowship, which rents space for worship led by their pastor Manfred Malagon.

The lawsuit states where the victim claims that Malagon sexually abused her.

By KAREN KASLER • DEC 14, 2016, Statehouse News Bureau

The Ohio Supreme Court says a state law capping damages in certain cases is constitutional. That means a 15-year-old Delaware County girl raped by her pastor in 2008 will get a quarter of a million dollars – not the $3.5 million the jury awarded her family.

By Frank Lewis - [email protected], December 13, 2016, Portsmouth Daily Times

Teenager known as “John Doe” files lawsuit in sexual abuse case

A Lewis County, Kentucky church has been sued by a male teen for child sexual assault. According to attorney Bruce MacDonald of the McBrayer McGinnis Leslie & Kirkland, law firm, their client, known for the record as “John Doe,” is suing Vanceburg Christian Church where a former pastor, Duncan D. Akers, Jr., 65, pleaded guilty and was convicted of criminal charges for sexually abusing the plaintiff, “John Doe.”

Akers pleaded guilty to five counts of first degree sexual abuse as part of a plea agreement. Several other charges were dropped as a part of the plea deal.