News Story of the Day
Wisconsin DOJ not filing appeal over sealed Archdiocese documents
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Wisconsin Law Journal [Milwaukee WI]
October 15, 2024
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced Monday that the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) is not filing an appeal of the decision by the United States Bankruptcy court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin denying DOJ access to sealed documents from the bankruptcy cased filed by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 2011 and closed in 2016.
Inola pastor found guilty of lewd acts, rape of underage girls
October 11, 2024 at 5:07 am CDT
INOLA, Okla. — A jury found an Inola pastor guilty of rape and two counts of lewd or indecent acts involving young girls Thursday morning.
4 years ago, Inola pastor Roy Shoop was arrested.
“I felt I was looking the devil right in the eye,” said Sheriff Scott Walton from the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office as he explained the moment he handcuffed Roy Shoop, “and I believe he was, and we put him right where he needs to be.”
Memphis Catholic Diocese, Humboldt church sued by man alleging childhood sexual assault
Lucas Finton
October 9, 2024
[Editor’s note: This story contains details of child sexual abuse. If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673).]
A man who has said he was sexually assaulted by a priest from Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Humboldt has filed a lawsuit against the church and the Catholic Diocese of Memphis, alleging that the church and diocese actively covered up the priest’s abuse.
The lawsuit comes nearly a year after The Commercial Appeal identified Joel Wiggs as a priest with multiple complaints lodged against him. Despite The CA confirming three of those complaints — one from 2002, 2013 and 2019 — Wiggs was not part of the diocese’s list of “credibly accused” priests as of 2020.
According to the lawsuit, Wiggs was ordained as a priest in 1949 and worked at Sacred Heart in Humboldt between 1967 and 1995. During that time, the lawsuit alleges Wiggs would be sexually abusive towards minors.
Wiggs died in 2001 at the age of 78. Online, as recently as 2016, people have praised Wiggs as an outstanding member of the Humboldt community. He was a volunteer fireman and fire chaplain, was on the National Catholic Disaster Relief Service Committee and, according to an article in the Jackson Sun, was “very active” with the Boy Scouts.
“From 1967 to 1995, Sacred Heart employed Wiggs as a priest and provided him with opportunities to come into frequent contact with children,” the lawsuit alleges. “Wiggs would use these frequent opportunities involving contact with children to get naked with boys in a hot tub, massage them with baby oil, show them pornographic movies, sexually touch them, anally penetrate them and engage in other sexually abusive misconduct.”
One of those victims, and the person who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee in mid-September, was Turner Casey. The CA spoke with Casey about his experiences with Wiggs in late 2023
To read the entire article, go here. A copy is also cached on Bishop-Accountability.org.
Louisiana diocese prepares to file for bankruptcy over clergy abuse claims
Alexandria diocese plans to file ‘prearranged chapter 11’ after settlement with victims to avoid ‘lengthy delays’
Ramon Antonio Vargas
Thu 10 Oct 2024
A Roman Catholic diocese in north-west Louisiana appears ready to join 40 other organizations of its kind in the US by filing for federal bankruptcy protection as the church’s worldwide clergy molestation scandal continues reverberating, according to a letter obtained by the Guardian.
But the diocese in question – that of Alexandria, Louisiana – is first aiming to reach a global settlement with those who already have pending clergy abuse claims demanding damages from the institution before it then files what it called a “prearranged chapter 11” financial reorganization. As the letter authored by local attorneys for the Alexandria church put it, the purpose of the strategy is to avoid “the lengthy delays and huge professional fees” incurred by the May 2020 bankruptcy filed by Louisiana’s archdiocese of New Orleans.
....
The Alexandria diocese in 2019 released a list of 27 clergymen who were faced with substantial allegations of sexual abuse of children or misconduct dating back to the 1940s. A few more names have since been added to the roster, bringing the number of clergymen identified to more than 30.
Yet the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap) said in a statement Monday, in part, that the updated list omits at least two late clergymen who have been publicly labeled as “credibly accused” by Catholic officials elsewhere: Joseph Pellettieri (New Orleans and Baton Rouge) and Brian Highfill (New Orleans and Las Vegas).
Snap’s statement said that two other late clergymen who were criminally investigated for alleged child sexual abuse are not on any church credibly accused lists but merit being named in Alexandria’s roster. The investigation into one of those clergymen – Jaime Medina-Cruz – ended without action after he was found dead in a hotel room in 2013, and the case involving the other – Donald McCarthy – was dismissed when authorities determined too much time had passed to file charges against him, Snap said.
....
To read the complete article, go here.
New Mexico Department of Justice plans to amend Crime Victims' Rights Act
"New Mexico has the sad distinction of being one of the least protective states in the nation when it comes to victims' rights," Torrez said
By Faith Egbuono
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
Video above: New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez unveiled a plan to amend the Crime Victims' Rights Act on Friday, Oct. 4. Torrez was joined by lawmakers and advocates to announce the plan for the 2025 legislative session. The amended legislation comes after Target 7 Investigations did a report on Patrick Howard. Howard is a former Las Cruces High School teacher who admitted to fondling students. However, a Dona Ana County judge released Howard from his probation years early. His victims were not notified when the judge held a hearing of his release.
Catholic Church found liable for historical sexual abuse by Newcastle priest
By Giselle Wakatama
Father Ron Pickin died in 2015. (Courtesy of Brock Perks, Newcastle Herald/ACM)
In short:
In a landmark NSW court case a judge has found the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle directly and vicariously liable for the childhood sexual abuse of a man known as AA.
The court heard AA was given beer and cigarettes and was sexually assaulted after blacking out in a presbytery.
What's next?
A directions hearing has been scheduled for next week.
Cardinal Dolan says archdiocese is suing insurer to force it to pay sex abuse claims
Cardinal Timothy Dolan. | Credit: Jeffrey Bruno/CNA
By Daniel Payne
October 1, 2024
New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan this week said the archdiocese’s longtime insurer is “attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation” to pay out financial claims to sex abuse victims, with the archdiocese launching a lawsuit against the insurer in response.
The prelate said in a letter to the faithful on Tuesday that the archdiocese has already settled more than 500 claims of sex abuse “not covered by insurance.” Yet there remain around 1,400 unresolved abuse allegations, Dolan said.
“It has always been our wish to expeditiously settle all meritorious claims,” the archbishop said. “However, Chubb, for decades our primary insurance company, even though we have paid them over $2 billion in premiums by today’s standards, is now attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors.” ...
In a statement to CNA on Tuesday morning [Chubb] argued that the archdiocese “tolerated, concealed, and covered up rampant child sexual abuse for decades, and despite having substantial financial resources, they still refuse to compensate their victims.” ...
To read the complete article, go here.
Catholic Diocese Files for Bankruptcy Amid Sex Abuse Claims
The state's only Catholic diocese, which has paid out more than $30 million to survivors over the years, still faces 31 lawsuits related to decades-old claims.
Bishop John J. McDermott: Courtesy of Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington
Published September 30, 2024
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, a maneuver through which the church will seek to resolve scores of sex abuse claims and preserve its assets.
The state's only Catholic diocese, which has paid out more than $30 million to sex abuse survivors in recent decades, still faces 31 pending civil lawsuits related to decades-old abuse claims, according to the petition filed in federal bankruptcy court in Vermont.
Most of the pending lawsuits were triggered by Vermont lawmakers' 2019 decision to lift the statute of limitations for civil claims related to sexual abuse of children. One of those cases had been scheduled for trial earlier this month but was abruptly canceled without public explanation, VTDigger.org reported.
Dozens of dioceses across the country have turned to bankruptcy court in the face of lawsuits from parishioners or former parishioners who say Catholic priests sexually abused them as children. The history of rampant abuse that church leaders covered up for decades has left dioceses with huge legal bills today.
Read the rest of the article here.
Tamil Nadu: 70-yr-old priest held for sexually assaulting minor inside temple
September 28, 2024
In a disturbing incident, a 70-year-old priest has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor girl inside the Bhagavathi Amman temple in Tamil Nadu’s Theni district.
According to the complaint filed by the girl’s family, the incident took place on September 26 when the accused identified as Thilagar found a few local children playing outside the temple. He lured them inside with promises of sweets and then assaulted one of the girls.
The situation escalated when the victim narrated the harrowing ordeal to her parents, following which locals including relatives of the girl staged a protest outside the temple demanding action against the priest. Fearing for his safety, Thailagar locked himself inside the temple. Local police rushed to the scene and detained him.
'The Church very good at aggressively protecting its own when accused of truly horrendous crimes'
France 24, September 27, 2024
Belgium’s prime minister on Friday blasted Pope Francis to his face for the Catholic Church’s horrific legacy of clerical sex abuse and cover-ups in his country, demanding “concrete steps” to come clean with the past and put victims’ interests over those of the church. Alexander De Croo's blistering welcome speech at the start of Francis’ visit was one of the most pointed ever directed at the pope during a foreign trip, where the genteel dictates of diplomatic protocol usually keep outrage out of public remarks. But even King Philippe had strong words for Francis, demanding the church work “incessantly” to atone for the crimes and help victims heal. Their tone underscored just how raw the abuse scandal still is in Belgium, where two decades of revelations of abuse and systematic cover-ups have devastated the hierarchy’s credibility and contributed to an overall decline in Catholicism and the influence of the once-powerful church. Francis applauded at the end of De Croo’s speech and was expected to meet with victims in private later Friday. "This is our shame and humiliation,” he said in an improvised response. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24's Mark Owen is joined by Marc Artzrouni, European Coordinator for SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests).
Watch the video here.
