MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A now-former parish staff member in Cincinnati is facing charges in Wisconsin connected to alleged grooming and sexual assault of a member of the Milwaukee Children's Choir he directed, according to court records filed Tuesday.
News Story of the Day
Massachusetts lawmakers seek to expand scope of certain sexual offenses
BOSTON (AP) — A bill that would expand the scope of certain sexual offenses under Massachusetts law perpetrated by a health care provider or a member of the clergy is making its way through Beacon Hill.
Archbishop Etienne of Seattle Equates AG Ferguson’s Clergy Abuse Investigation to Oversight on “Refill[Ing] Toilet Paper Dispensers”
SEATTLE (WA)
Catholic Accountability Project (CAP) [Seattle WA]
July 2, 2024
By Catholic Accountability Project
Archbishop Etienne argues in court brief that the state has no right to investigate sexual abuse or financial mismanagement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 1, 2024
Earlier this afternoon, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle submitted his opposition to Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s petition to compel the archdiocese to cooperate with the AGO’s subpoenas demanding abuse-related documents from Washington State’s three Catholic dioceses.
Ex-Missionaries of Charity allege culture of abuse and neglect
Jul 1, 2024|Senior Correspondent
ROME – Almost three decades after her death, Saint Teresa of Kolkata, commonly and affectionately referred to as “Mother Teresa,” remains an international icon of charity and among the most beloved figures in the world, probably the Catholic Church’s most celebrated 20th century personality who wasn’t a pope.
Named Time’s “Person of the Year” in 1975, Mother Teresa also founded a religious order, the Missionaries of Charity, which has become one of the Catholic Church’s most celebrated institutions, almost universally hailed for its service to the “poorest of the poor.”
Former Cincinnati parish staffer faces allegations of grooming, sexual abuse in Wisconsin
Posted at 3:07 PM, Jun 26, 2024
As a child, I was relentlessly abused by a Catholic priest. As an adult, it almost killed me twice
Gerard Gorman faced unimaginable horror as an 11-year-old boarder in County Armagh. The pain haunted him for decades – then he took on the church
By Rory Carroll
It was November 1970 and Northern Ireland was sliding into the Troubles, but for Gerard Gorman, a new pupil at St Colman’s College, the horror of that era began when Fr Malachy Finegan summoned him into a room, closed the door and told him to sit on a sofa.
Gorman was 11 years old and small for his age, with big blue eyes. Two months earlier, he had started as a boarder at the Catholic boys’ school in Newry, County Armagh. Staff tended to be aloof or intimidating, except Finegan, the religious education teacher, who was solicitous and avuncular.
DeSantis OKs $20 million to go to victims at Dozier, Okeechobee boys schools
Gov. Ron DeSantis Friday OK'd a process for hundreds of elderly men known as the White House Boys to apply for reparations for beatings and rapes they endured as children while in state custody.
The governor signed the Dozier School for Boys and Okeechobee School Victim Compensation bill (HB 21), according to state Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, one of the bill's backers.
Gateway Church’s Robert Morris sex abuse allegations should spur revival laws in Texas
Pastor Robert Morris applauds during a roundtable discussion at Gateway Church Dallas Campus on Thursday, June 11, 2020, in Dallas. A statement issued on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, said that Morris has resigned after a woman said he had abused her on multiple occasions in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12.(Alex Brandon / ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Last week, Cindy Clemishire came forward with allegations of child sexual abuse by Pastor Robert Morris of Gateway Church. Morris did not deny the allegations. What Morris did is what many abusers do — minimize and soften the descriptions of his behavior. It was, as Morris said, “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady.”
It was more than “inappropriate.” If Clemishire’s allegations are true, it was criminal. And she was not a “young lady.” She alleges the abuse began when she was was 12.
A 12-year-old is generally in sixth or seventh grade. Her brain and body are still growing. Her permanent teeth are still emerging. She can’t drive, drink alcohol, smoke or vote. A 12-year-old is a child.
According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 13 men report being victims of sexual assault as children. Those numbers equal a shocking 11% of all children worldwide.
Because of these alarming numbers, many state legislatures are responding with commonsense reforms to statutes of limitations. Unfortunately, Texas isn’t one of them yet.
Deceased Spanish Jesuit accused of abusing ‘hundreds’ of Indigenous girls
LA PAZ (BOLIVIA)
National Catholic Reporter [Kansas City MO]
June 19, 2024
By David Agren, OSV News
A Spanish Jesuit has been discovered to have documented his abuse of hundreds of Indigenous girls while serving as a missionary in rural Bolivia — atrocities which the Society of Jesus has known about since at least 2019 and did not immediately report to the civil authorities.
Jesuit Father Luis María Roma wrote in a diary of abusing girls, whom he often lured to a river and photographed inappropriately, according to the Spanish newspaper El País. The Jesuit province in Bolivia compiled a report on Roma’s acts in 2019, but withheld it from prosecutors, according to El País, which obtained a copy of the priest’s diary and the Jesuit’s investigation.
Dorothy Small on Abuse of Adults in the Roman Catholic Church
Dorothy Small an advocate for SNAP, Survivor Network for those Abused by Priests since 2019, was a child sex abuse victim. She also experienced sexual abuse by a clergyman as an adult. Dorothy courageously addressed the latter through successful litigation publicly disclosing her identity prior to the inception of the #Me Too movement. Victimized but not a victim she shares how she moved beyond surviving to thriving using adversity as a powerful motivator. She fortified herself with knowledge of personability disorders and tactics used by predators to help her spot wolves in sheep’s clothing. This has enabled her to feel safe in a world where safety is not guaranteed, even in institutions where one would expect it such as religious. A retired registered nurse with over forty years of clinical experience, Dorothy lives with her loving fur companions Bradley Cooper and Captain Ron, Boston Terriers. She is a self-published author, cancer survivor, mother, and grandmother. Dorothy is currently working on a book detailing her experiences in moving beyond a life of abuse and into a new life of freedom.
