News Story of the Day
Indonesia bishop resigns in finance, mistress scandal
By Associated Press
VATICAN CITY — A Roman Catholic bishop in Indonesia has resigned following reports that he had a mistress and siphoned off more than $100,000 in church funds.
Convicted priests still getting pensions and medical benefits
By Connie Leonard, Anchor/Reporter, October 10, 2017, WAVE 3 News
LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Louisville area priests convicted of molesting children in a court of law are still getting money and benefits from the Catholic Church.
What message is it sending?
Victims of priest abuse maintain that's a question parishioners should be asking their Catholic church leaders, to make sure their children and others are protected.
Priests, like Father Joseph Hemmerle, may deny heinous acts against children. "I'm innocent of all these charges," Hemmerle told a judge after being convicted by a Meade County jury.
'He took my innocence': Victims describe toll of ex-bishop's abuse
PROVO — When they turned to their LDS bishop as vulnerable teenagers, two young men told a judge Tuesday that they instead became victims of a sly sexual predator who isolated them from their families and left them buried beneath guilt.
Erik Hughes, 51, was sentenced to at least one and up to 20 years in prison Tuesday, ordered to serve concurrent terms of one to 15 years for two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, followed by a consecutive term of up to five years for witnesses tampering, a third-degree felony.
Legionaries of Christ hit by new scandal as priest fathers two
By Philip Pullella, Reuters, October 7, 2017
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Legionaries of Christ, a Catholic religious order which fell into disgrace after the discovery that its founder was a sexual abuser with a secret family, has been hit by fresh scandal with revelations that the head of its Rome seminary fathered two children.
The order said in a statement late on Friday that Father Oscar Turrion would leave the priesthood. It also released a letter by Turrion in which he asks “forgiveness for the scandal ... forgiveness for my bad example and the negative witness I have given”.
'The Keepers': Baltimore news station uncovers lost video that could answer questions about case
Diocese launches compensation fund for clergy abuse victims
October 6, 2017, News 12 Long Island
ROCKVILLE CENTRE -
The Diocese of Rockville Centre is launching a fund to compensate victims of sex abuse by clergy.
The Diocese sent a letter to victims notifying them of the settlement program. It's called the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.
Victims who accept settlement money must waive their right to bring their cases to court.
Ex-Maspeth priest molested girls: lawyer
By Christopher Barca, Associate Editor, October 5, 2017, The Queens Chronicle
More than a dozen women have come forward in recent weeks to accuse a former Maspeth priest of molesting them as children decades ago.
Prominent attorney Mitchell Garabedian told the Chronicle in a Tuesday interview that 15 women claim that former Holy Cross Church pastor the Rev. Adam Prochaski sexually abused them at some point between 1973 and 1994.
“Father Prochaski was sexually abusing innocent children for more than two decades,” Garabedian said. “My clients are very courageous for coming forward.”
The Most Offensive Street Name in Dallas
By Tim Rogers, D Magazine
A newcomer to town wouldn’t give it a second thought. Off West Jefferson Boulevard, in southwest Dallas, between Dallas National Golf Club and Cockrell Hill, there’s a small working-class subdivision called Santa Clara. The entry road is called Via Bishop Grahmann. What could possibly be remarkable about that?
JEHOVAH’S WITNESS SEXUAL ABUSE CLASS ACTION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Toronto
October 2, 2017
Jehovah’s Witness Sexual Abuse Class Action Toronto law firm McPhadden Samac Tuovi Haté LLP announced today that it had commenced a class action in Ontario against 3 Jehovah’s Witness organizations, one in Canada and two in the United States.
The amount claimed on behalf of the former students is the sum of $66,000,000.
The case has been brought on behalf of current and former Jehovah’s Witnesses who claim they were sexually assaulted by Elders of the organization. There is also a class of claimants composed of those who allege that when they were children they were sexually assaulted by adult Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Longtime Native Health Staffer Out After Sex Abuse Allegations Surface
By OCTOBER 2, 2017, Phoenix New Times
|Dennis Huff, the longtime head of behavioral health services at Native Health of Phoenix — which primarily serves the urban Native American community — has left the organization amid allegations of sexual abuse of students at St. Catherine's Indian School in Santa Fe during the late 1970s and early 1980s.