Victims of child sexual abuse were treated in a heartless, hostile and cruel way by monks on a remote island, a safeguarding review has found.
One survivor said the way she had been treated since her time on Caldey Island, off Pembrokeshire, has made the effects of the abuse "a million times worse".
The review said frequent allegations of abuse had been made but not followed up on or reported to police, and the lack of challenge had enabled a monk to abuse children over four decades "in plain sight".
Justice scales, books and wooden gavel. Getty Images.
Sexual assault and rape survivors and those who support them came forward last week to urge lawmakers to pass a bill that would criminalize “grooming,” which they said could have saved lives had it existed years ago.
House Bill 322 creates the crime of “grooming” in Ohio, which would be charged as a first or second degree misdemeanor, except in circumstances where the victim is younger than 13 and other offenses are also committed, such as supplying alcohol or drugs to the victim or having a previous sexually oriented offense conviction. The combination of the crimes would result in felony charges, according to the bill.
An elderly priest’s guilty plea exposes the church’s history of shielding predators in its midst for decades
Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans
In the case of serial child molester and retired Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker, the cover-up failed.
But it wasn’t for lack of trying by a coalition of high-ranking church officials and sympathetic judges, who prioritized the predator’s comfort above justice for his innumerable victims until the evidence against him was so overwhelming that – rather than stand the humiliation of a public trial – he pleaded guilty last Tuesday.
The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Center at 20 W. Ninth Street, Kansas City, is pictured in a Google Maps Street View image. Google Maps
December 05, 2024
By Kendrick Calfee
One man among a group suing the Archdiocese of St. Louis for allegations of sexual abuse, and its cover-up, has dismissed his claim that a man alleged to now be a Kansas City deacon abused him in the 1980s, online court records show.
However, Ralph Wehner, a Kansas City deacon, remains suspended from ministry while church officials investigate the claim, a Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese spokesperson said. A man identified as W.C. in court documents dismissed his claim of abuse by Wehner on Nov. 21.
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The Missouri chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has called on the diocese to be transparent with church members throughout its investigation into the sex abuse claim.
David Clohessy, the organization’s Missouri director, said SNAP has urged church officials to make clear appeals to the public to share any information about known or suspected crimes or cover ups. Thus far, church officials have failed to do that, Clohessy said.
“Church officials should do this now, reminding their flock that ‘the truth shall set you free’ and that they have a moral and civic duty to help protect kids and help unearth the facts,” Clohessy said.
Bishop Emeritus John S. Cummins, center, speaks during a mass and memorial for former Bishop O’Dowd High School President Dr. Stephen W. Phelps at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018. Phelps, president of the school since 2005, died of complications after heart surgery at St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco on Dec. 26. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
The Mercury News
December 4, 2024
By Jason Green
OAKLAND – John S. Cummins, the second and longest-serving bishop of Oakland, died Tuesday. He was 96.
The Diocese of Oakland confirmed Cummins’ death, writing in a statement that the retired bishop emeritus “leaves a legacy of service to God through his priesthood and episcopacy.”
“Our diocese has lost a father, grandfather, shepherd and true priest of Jesus Christ,” Bishop Michael C. Barber said. “May Christ the Good Shepherd welcome Bishop John into the eternal reward prepared for him who served the flock of Oakland so well.”
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Cummins’ tenure was not without controversy. In a 2022 letter, defrocked Oakland priest Tim Stier expressed dismay that Barber, the current bishop, had not held Cummins accountable for his role in allegedly enabling sexual abuse by credibly accused priests in the diocese, this news organization reported at the time.
ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
New York Daily News
December 4, 2024
By Joseph Wilkinson
A years-long legal battle between Long Island’s Catholic diocese and hundreds of alleged sex abuse victims came to an end Wednesday, with a bankruptcy judge in Manhattan approving a plan that finalizes a $323 million settlement.
As part of the settlement, the Diocese of Rockville Centre will begin making payments next year to nearly 600 victims of child sex abuse in the church.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Martin Glenn said he was “extremely pleased” with the deal, according to Newsday.
Updated 7:54 PM EST, December 3, 2024
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A disgraced 93-year-old New Orleans priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges involving the sexual assault of a teenage boy in 1975.
Lawrence Hecker, who left the ministry in 2002, had been scheduled to stand trial Tuesday. Hecker’s eyes were focused on the ground as a sheriff’s deputy pushed him toward Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Nandi Campbell’s courtroom, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported.
Hecker entered his plea to aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature, first-degree rape and theft before Campbell, moments before jury selection was scheduled to begin, multiple news outlets reported. Sentencing was set for Dec. 18. He faces life in prison.
“Erin” was one of millions of believers whose faith in God was so transformed by the Brownsville Revival of the mid-1990s that she accepted a secretarial job at the revival’s ministry school in Pensacola, Florida. But in 2002, the 21-year-old suddenly cleared her desk, quietly left the state, and has struggled with her faith ever since.
Erin told The Roys Report (TRR) she left because she felt trapped when revival leader and FIRE School of Ministry founder Michael Brown—a man she called “Dad”—would frequently cross physical boundaries. He’d hold her hand, kiss her on the lips, and slap her bottom, she said.
Constantin Turcoane was charged in August with rape and sexual intercourse with a person under 14. Police said at the time he was accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old parishioner at his western Manitoba church in the early 1970s. (Submitted by Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America)
November 28, 2024
By: Santiago Arias Orozco
Warning: This story deals with allegations of sexual assault and discussion of suicide.
Shelley Trubiak says she suffered in silence for 52 years — but two years ago decided she couldn't do that anymore, after she started having flashbacks of the abuse by a priest she says she suffered while growing up in her small western Manitoba community.
Trubiak, who is now 66, went to the RCMP in 2022, triggering a two-year investigation that led to the issue of an arrest warrant in August for Constantin Turcoane, who was 81 at the time.
The retired priest was charged with rape and sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 14, after Trubiak alleged he sexually assaulted her in the early 1970s, when she was 12 years old and a parishioner at his church in Lennard, Man.
"I've been afraid and scared — all my life I went through this thing," Trubiak, who now lives in Saskatchewan, told CBC News this week. "I have to heal from this, [and] this is the only way I might.
"I just want to tell my story."
Anthony Odiong after his arrest in Florida in July. Photograph: Waco police
The Guardian
November 26, 2024
By Charlie Scudder and Ramon Antonio Vargas
A Roman Catholic priest with links to Texas and Louisiana who is facing criminal charges for allegedly abusing his position of authority within the church to pursue sex with vulnerable women fathered at least two children with them, authorities have alleged.
The stunning information about Anthony Odiong surfaced at a bail hearing on Tuesday in Waco, Texas, where prosecutors have charged him with several counts of sexually assaulting women to whom he ministered.
Odiong requested a reduction of the $5.5m bail on which he is being held in custody. But a judge denied that request after prosecutors established Odiong had communicated plans to flee to his native Nigeria if he were released – while simultaneously airing the most complete account yet about the alleged double life he had built.
