Media Statements

A creative lawsuit filed by West Virginia’s attorney general has hit another setback and we are disappointed that the efforts to force transparency and accountability against the Catholic Church in West Virginia has hit another hurdle.

A lawsuit filed against a prominent Dallas-area private school last year has now grown to include six more plaintiffs who allege that they were sexually abused by Catholic priests while students at the school. We applaud these brave victims for coming forward and hope that this lawsuit will lead to punishments for enablers and changes at the school that will protect future students from the scourge of sexual abuse.

Representatives of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, have written to Coptic Orthodox officials here and in Egypt concerning the advisability of having people under the authority of an accused cleric pursue an investigation into the allegations against him. The group urged the Pope and a US Bishop to take a lesson from the Catholic Church and move the probe to another diocese.

Catholic officials in Rome have ordered an investigation into a San Jose bishop over his handling of cases of clergy sexual abuse. We are glad that an internal investigation is underway and we hope any evidence of wrongdoing will be turned over to law enforcement so that an independent probe can take place as well.

An Orthodox priest in the Sacramento area is awaiting trial in jail after being accused of committing lewd acts on a 14-year-old girl. These are obviously serious charges that demand significant outreach efforts by Indian Orthodox officials in the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, headquartered in Kottayam, Kerala, India.

A Conroe, TX, Catholic priest who was charged with multiple counts of indecency with a child has pleaded guilty to his crimes and has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. We are grateful for this result and know that children are safer thanks to this conviction.

Locally-based Catholic group names 19 predator priests

Sixteen of them are ‘outed’ as abusers for the first time here

Thirteen of them are/were in St. Louis, Kansas City & southern MO

Four credibly accused abusers – or more - are missing, SNAP says

One died as recently as 2014 & and least one molested in the 2000s

The United States is lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to investigating and preventing cases of Catholic child sexual abuse. We need to catch up and we can start by launching a federal investigation into sexual crimes and cover-ups committed by clergy and staffers.

As the true depth of sexual abuse and cover-up within the Boy Scouts of America continues to be revealed, it is impossible to ignore the similarities between the abuse scandal within the BSA and that of the Catholic Church.

The recently released report into the crimes of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick raises new questions about the disgraced prelate’s use of discretionary charitable funds. We call on Catholic officials to detail how these funds were spent and to inform affected donors if their money was used to keep McCarrick’s accusers from going to the public.