News Story of the Day

By Jim McDermott, October 11, 2017, America-The Jesuit Review

Living in Los Angeles and watching the cascade of horror that is the unraveling story of Hollywood uber-exec Harvey Weinstein and his abuses of women, I have had a strange sense of déjà vu. I was a seminarian studying for the priesthood in Boston in January 2002 when The Boston Globe began publishing its astonishing series of articles on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Those reports began a lot like the Weinstein story, with allegations surrounding one man, John Geoghan, who had been committing horrific acts of abuse for decades throughout the Archdiocese of Boston.

By Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — A Roman Catholic bishop in Indonesia has resigned following reports that he had a mistress and siphoned off more than $100,000 in church funds.

By Connie Leonard, Anchor/Reporter, October 10, 2017, WAVE 3 News

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Louisville area priests convicted of molesting children in a court of law are still getting money and benefits from the Catholic Church.

What message is it sending?

Victims of priest abuse maintain that's a question parishioners should be asking their Catholic church leaders, to make sure their children and others are protected.

Priests, like Father Joseph Hemmerle, may deny heinous acts against children. "I'm innocent of all these charges," Hemmerle told a judge after being convicted by a Meade County jury.

By McKenzie Romero, Oct. 10, 2017, Desert News Utah

PROVO — When they turned to their LDS bishop as vulnerable teenagers, two young men told a judge Tuesday that they instead became victims of a sly sexual predator who isolated them from their families and left them buried beneath guilt.

Erik Hughes, 51, was sentenced to at least one and up to 20 years in prison Tuesday, ordered to serve concurrent terms of one to 15 years for two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, followed by a consecutive term of up to five years for witnesses tampering, a third-degree felony.

By Philip Pullella, Reuters, October 7, 2017

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Legionaries of Christ, a Catholic religious order which fell into disgrace after the discovery that its founder was a sexual abuser with a secret family, has been hit by fresh scandal with revelations that the head of its Rome seminary fathered two children.

The order said in a statement late on Friday that Father Oscar Turrion would leave the priesthood. It also released a letter by Turrion in which he asks “forgiveness for the scandal ... forgiveness for my bad example and the negative witness I have given”.

By Christian Schaffer, Scripps National Desk, Oct 6, 2017, WCPO 9 Cincinnati

However, the newly found video does not provide evidence that pornographic images of children were in the stash. One anonymous police detective said on “The Keepers” that such images were among the documents recovered.

October 6, 2017, News 12 Long Island

ROCKVILLE CENTRE -

The Diocese of Rockville Centre is launching a fund to compensate victims of sex abuse by clergy.

The Diocese sent a letter to victims notifying them of the settlement program. It's called the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.

Victims who accept settlement money must waive their right to bring their cases to court.

By Christopher Barca, Associate Editor, October 5, 2017, The Queens Chronicle

More than a dozen women have come forward in recent weeks to accuse a former Maspeth priest of molesting them as children decades ago.

Prominent attorney Mitchell Garabedian told the Chronicle in a Tuesday interview that 15 women claim that former Holy Cross Church pastor the Rev. Adam Prochaski sexually abused them at some point between 1973 and 1994.

“Father Prochaski was sexually abusing innocent children for more than two decades,” Garabedian said. “My clients are very courageous for coming forward.”

By Tim Rogers, D Magazine

A newcomer to town wouldn’t give it a second thought. Off West Jefferson Boulevard, in southwest Dallas, between Dallas National Golf Club and Cockrell Hill, there’s a small working-class subdivision called Santa Clara. The entry road is called Via Bishop Grahmann. What could possibly be remarkable about that?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Toronto
October 2, 2017

Jehovah’s Witness Sexual Abuse Class Action Toronto law firm McPhadden Samac Tuovi Haté LLP announced today that it had commenced a class action in Ontario against 3 Jehovah’s Witness organizations, one in Canada and two in the United States. 
The amount claimed on behalf of the former students is the sum of $66,000,000. 

The case has been brought on behalf of current and former Jehovah’s Witnesses who claim they were sexually assaulted by Elders of the organization. There is also a class of claimants composed of those who allege that when they were children they were sexually assaulted by adult Jehovah’s Witnesses.