News Story of the Day

Houston's Champion Forest Baptist agrees to settle child sex abuse suit

The plaintiffs sought $1 million in relief for the boy's medical bills and his "pain and suffering."

By Religion Reporter Oct 17, 2024 

Family and friends gather during a Celebration of Life service in honor of Sgt. Marty Gonzalez held at Champion Forest Baptist Church-Champions Campus, Friday, Dec. 12, 2020, in Houston. Gonzalez helped in the creation of the Veteran’s Court program in Harris County, which has since expanded.

Gustavo Huerta, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

 

Champion Forest Baptist Church in far northwest Houston agreed to pay "minimal money" to settle a civil case that alleges one of its Sunday school teachers beat and sexually assaulted a 4-year-old boy in 2019, an attorney for the church confirmed this week.


Irish archbishop blocks Vatican interference in abuse case

Archbishop John Kennedy at his desk in the DDF

 

By Chai Brady  October 17, 2024

An attempt to reinstate a priest laicised for the sexual abuse of minors by a top Vatican cleric has been decried by a leading Irish child protection campaigner Marie Collins, who warned children would have been put in danger.


Archdiocese of Los Angeles agrees to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse

FILE - People attend a memorial service outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles, Jan. 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes,File)

Updated 10:30 PM EDT, October 16, 2024

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades, in what an attorney said was the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, it was announced Wednesday.


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

Memphis Commercial Appeal

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’

The Guardian

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

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

Catholic News Agency

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.

 

 


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