News Story of the Day
Pam Bondi investigating allegations of sexual abuse by Florida priests
October 4, 2018, Associated Press, WFTV
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Florida has launched a statewide criminal investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priests and is asking past victims to share information with legal authorities. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday her office has set up a website that will allow people to report incidents of past sexual abuse.
Police seize misconduct records from Michigan's Catholic dioceses
By Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News, October 3, 2018
Police seized clergy misconduct records from all of Michigan's Catholic dioceses after serving several search warrants across the state within an hour of each other Wednesday morning.
Diocesan officials in Lansing, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Marquette, Kalamazoo and Gaylord confirmed the searches took place Wednesday as part of the Attorney General's Office investigation into the dioceses' handling of clergy sexual abuse of minors. The dioceses said they cooperated fully with authorities.
Clergy abuse lawsuit targets all California Catholic bishops
By Christopher Weber, Oct 3, 2018,
LOS ANGELES - A man who says he was sexually abused decades ago by his parish priest said Tuesday he is suing all Catholic bishops in California and the Archdiocese of Chicago, seeking to compel Church officials to release records on clergy abuse.
The filing Tuesday in Los Angeles by Thomas Emens claims a civil conspiracy among Church officials to cover up clergy sexual assault and move offending priests to other parishes.
Catholic video about protecting kids includes bishops accused of failing to protect kids
Two Catholic bishops accused of failing to protect children from abusive priests are being edited out of church training videos about preventing child abuse.
The videos, titled “A Time to Protect God’s Children” and “A Plan to Protect God’s Children,” are widely used by Catholic dioceses across the country in mandatory training programs for volunteers, coaches, teachers and others who work for the church.
Wealthy Catholics to target Cardinals with ‘Red Hat Report’
ROME - As U.S. bishops work to formulate an official response to clerical sexual abuse and cover-up, a new watchdog group backed by wealthy Catholics is seeking to take matters into their own hands.
A new organization, which held an RSVP-only event on Sunday evening, plans to spend more than $1 million in the next year investigating every member of the College of Cardinals “to name those credibly accused in scandal, abuse, or cover-ups.”
‘Wave’ of local victims may come forward
By MICHAEL KELLY, September 28, 2018, Marrietta Times
Diocese of Steubenville will publish names of abusers in October
The Diocese of Steubenville, which includes several parishes in Washington County, announced Wednesday it will publish the names of priests in the diocese against whom credible allegations of sex abuse have been made and who have been removed from active ministry.
Diocese Communications director Dino Orsatti said Wednesday the list, which is expected to include between 12 and 20 names, will appear on the diocese website around the end of October.
For Native American Clergy Sex Abuse Survivors, Justice is Elusive
By Cecily Hilleary, September 27, 2018, VOA News
WASHINGTON — Elsie Boudreau was 10 years old that afternoon in 1978 when Father James Poole called her and two playmates into the office of a small radio station he had founded in Nome, Alaska.
"He had us line up against the wall and began asking us questions," said Boudreau, who grew up in St. Mary’s, a tiny Yup’ik village in northwest Alaska where Poole had earlier served as pastor. "Then, he told the two other girls that they could leave, but that I should stay. He said it was because I was so much more mature than the other girls."
Alyssa Milano: I was sexually assaulted as a teen. Here’s why I didn’t report.
By
It took me 30 years to tell anyone. And I’m far from alone.
The courage of survivors will always be stronger than Donald Trump’s hate. The lives of survivors will always be more important than Brett Kavanaugh’s career.
When I was sexually assaulted, I wasn’t that much older than Christine Blasey Ford — now a PhD in psychology — was when she was allegedly assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (Kavanaugh denies the incident occurred). I’ve watched, horrified as politicians and pundits refused to believe or take seriously these allegations.