News Story of the Day
Governor Abbott Signs Over 600 Critical Bills Passed During 89th Regular Legislative Session
Office of the Texas Governor
June 21, 2025
Governor Abbott today signed into law over 300 bills passed during the 89th Regular Legislative Session that ensure Texas remains the greatest state in the nation, bringing the total to date to over 600 bills signed into law.
“Texas is where the American dream lives," Governor Abbott. "Today, I signed critical legislation passed in the 89th Regular Legislative Session that protects the safety of Texans and safeguards the individual freedoms that our great state was founded on. Working with the Texas Legislature, we will keep Texas the best place to live, work, and raise a family."
Governor Abbott continues to review the over 1,200 bills that the Texas Legislature delivered to his desk. The sign/veto period for the 89th Regular Legislative Session continues through Sunday, June 22.
Today, Governor Abbott signed 334 bills passed by the Texas Legislature, including these 16 critical pieces of legislation:
RI House passes bill to allow victims of childhood sex abuse to sue people, institutions that did not protect them
Providence Journal
June 17, 2025
By Katherine Gregg
PROVIDENCE – Victims of childhood sexual abuse by priests and others in their Rhode Island world have scored a victory.
The R.I. House of Representatives voted 67 to 5 along party lines on Monday, June 16 to allow these victims to file civil suits, seeking damages, from people and institutions that neglected to stop the abuse they suffered as children, concealed it or transferred known offenders from one location to another.
Republican Rep. Brian Newberry raised the only arguments against the bill. He said it would open Rhode Island to the potential loss of insurance companies, no longer willing to write policies in states willing to "revive" decades old claims.
"I know this is a highly emotional issue for a lot of people and I understand why people vote for it, but it doesn't make it a good,'' said Newberry, a lawyer. "No one's going to walk out of California or New York or Texas or Florida. But they'll walk out of Rhode Island."
Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing children in San Luis Obispo County
Father Theodore Gabrielli
Cal Coast News
June 17, 2025
By Karen Velie
Update: At his arraignment hearing on Tuesday afternoon, Father Theodore Gabrielli’s attorney asked the court to postpone his arraignment until July 8. The judge then eliminated the $1 million bail.
A Catholic priest is sitting in the San Luis Obispo County Jail without bail regarding allegations he sexually abused three children in San Luis Obispo County.
More churches file lawsuit against Gov. Ferguson over new mandatory child abuse reporting law
Orthodox Church in America
KXLY.com
June 16, 2025
By
SPOKANE, Wash. -- New court filings show several Orthodox churches and a priest are suing the state of Washington and Governor Bob Ferguson over a newly implemented law that requires clergy to report suspected child abuse.
The plaintiffs include Orthodox Church in America, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas, Western American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and Timothy Wilkinson.
They join Catholic bishops who have already sued the state.
New Jersey can have a grand jury investigate clergy sex abuse allegations, state high court rules
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Camden, N.J., Wednesday, April 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
AP News
June 16, 2025
By Mike Catalini
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey can have a grand jury examine allegations of clergy sexually abusing children, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Monday, after a Catholic diocese that had tried for years to block such proceedings recently reversed course.
The Diocese of Camden previously had argued that a court rule prevents the state attorney general from impaneling a grand jury to issue findings in the state’s investigation into decades of allegations against church officials. But the diocese notified the court in early May that it would no longer oppose that. Camden Bishop Joseph Williams, who took over the diocese in March, said he’d met with stakeholders in the diocese and there was unanimous consent to end the church’s opposition to the grand jury.
The seven-member Supreme Court concluded such a grand jury inquiry is allowed.
Alleged child sexual abuse victim Cindy Clemishire, father file suit against Robert Morris, his wife and Gateway Church
CBS Texas
June 12, 2025
By S.E. Jenkins
Cindy Clemishire, the woman at the center of the child sex abuse case involving Gateway Church founder Robert Morris, and her father have filed a lawsuit against the church founder, his wife and several current and former church leaders.
The suit alleges the defendants knew about Robert Morris' deceit, hid it and made millions of dollars from his "moral failures and rape of Plaintiff, Cindy Clemishire."
The lawsuit names Gateway Church, Robert Morris, Robert Morris' wife Deborah Morris, Thomas H. Miller, Jr., John D. Willbanks III, Kevin Grove, Jeremy Carrasco, Kenneth W. Fambro II, Gayland Lawshe, Dane Minor, Lawrence Swicegood, Steve Dulin and the Robert Morris Evangelistic Association Inc.
Miller, Willbanks, Grove, Carrasco, Fambro, Lawshe, Minor and Dulin are identified as Gateway Church elders and Swicegood as the former Executive Director of Media and Communications for Gateway. Deborah Morris, Robert Morris' wife, is listed a former leader of the women's ministry at Gateway.
CSWR and Special Collections releases first portion of Archdiocese of Santa Fe Institutional Abuse Collection
University of New Mexico News
June 7, 2025
The Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections (CSWR), part of the University Libraries, has announced the public release of the first portion of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe Institutional Abuse Collection. This important digital archive provides public access to previously sealed legal documents related to clergy sexual abuse cases in New Mexico.
The collection was established as a part of the settlement between the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by its clergy members. This first batch of documents consists of deposition transcripts related to lawsuits against the Archdiocese in the 1900s, 2000s, and 2010s. Overall the collection includes depositions, personnel files, church administrative records, and other legal documents from the settlement. These documents, now available in digital format, serve as a crucial resource for survivors, researchers, journalists, and community members seeking greater transparency and accountability in institutional abuse cases.
"New Mexico was an epicenter of Catholic sexual abuse in the US; the state gained the reputation of a “dumping ground” because priests who abused young people landed frequently here. But in a remarkable development, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe handed over its “abuse files” to UNM as part of its bankruptcy settlement. Now UNM is the first university in the US to hold a Catholic sexual abuse archive,” said Kathleen Holscher, associate professor of Religious Studies and American Studies. Holscher also holds the endowed chair of the Roman Catholic Studies at UNM.
Catholic bishops sue Washington state over law requiring clergy to report child abuse
The Trump administration has launched an investigation into the law, calling it "anti-Catholic." The bishops say it would force them to break their oaths.
MSNBC
June 3, 2025
By
Catholic leaders in Washington have sued the state over a new law requiring clergy to report suspected child abuse, including details potentially revealed during confession.
The lawsuit, filed last week on behalf of the bishops, alleges Senate Bill 5375, which was signed into law on May 2, violates the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The law “puts Roman Catholic priests to an impossible choice: violate 2,000 years of Church teaching and incur automatic excommunication, or refuse to comply with Washington law and be subject to imprisonment, fine, and civil liability,” the lawsuit states.
The law’s text doesn’t target Catholics specifically. In fact, it upholds the mandatory reporting requirement for ministers, priests, rabbis, imams, elders or a “spiritual leader of any church, religious denomination, religious body, spiritual community or sect," adding to a list that includes school employees and health care workers. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Noel Frame, said she was motivated to create this bill following reports that Jehovah’s Witnesses covered up child sexual abuse for years.
We took the fight global - now we need you to help us keep going
Dear SNAP Community,
What began as a small group of survivors of clergy sexual abuse meeting for the first time at a Holiday Inn in Chicago has grown into a global movement. Under the fearless leadership of our founder, Barbara Blaine, our movement reached a historic milestone in 2010 when we brought a case against the Vatican to the International Criminal Court at The Hague. We stood up then, and we are still standing strong now for survivors of abuse in all faith-based institutions.
Seton Hall defies cardinal’s order in sexual abuse investigation
Cardinal Joseph Tobin promised “full cooperation” from the Catholic university in New Jersey, but the school is pushing back.
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark promised a thorough investigation into clergy abuse at Seton Hall University, but the school blocked a key witness from participating. | Gregorio Borgia)/AP
Politico
May 23, 2025
By Dustin Racioppi
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of New Jersey left for Vatican City earlier this month to help select the next pope — a rare moment on the global stage for one of the most powerful Catholic leaders in the United States.
Back home, Seton Hall University — the oldest Catholic diocesan university in America, where Tobin personally oversees both governing boards — was preparing to defy him.
A day after the new pontiff was chosen on May 8, attorneys for the university blocked a key witness from participating in a clergy abuse investigation Tobin had ordered, according to a court filing. That inquiry centers on whether Seton Hall’s new president, Monsignor Joseph Reilly, was installed despite past mishandling of abuse allegations.
Now Tobin’s own archdiocese is trying to regain control.
The moves expose a conflict at the highest levels of Catholic education — pitting Tobin against the university he oversees — and threatens to unravel his public promises of transparency with the school’s “full cooperation.”
