Stephen Gutgsell assaulted ‘during an invasion’ of a Fort Calhoun church and suspect was taken into custody, authorities said
A Catholic priest in a small Nebraska community died Sunday after being attacked in a church rectory, authorities said.
Stephen Gutgsell was assaulted “during an invasion” of St John the Baptist Catholic church in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, the archdiocese of Omaha said in a Sunday statement.
Continue reading...Survivors of institutions run by Catholic diocese recall litany of sexual abuse as bankruptcy process keeps documents hidden
This is the final installment of a three-part series exploring how the archdiocese of New Orleans’s bankruptcy stands apart from other cases of its kind. The first installment ran on Wednesday 29 November 2023, and the second installment ran on Friday 1 December.
Call her Sheila.
Continue reading...In second radical action in a month, pontiff hits back at retired prelate Raymond Burke, one of his most vocal critics
Pope Francis has decided to punish one of his highest-ranking critics, Cardinal Raymond Burke, by revoking his right to a subsidized Vatican apartment and salary in the second such radical action against a conservative American prelate this month, according to two people briefed on the measures.
Francis told a meeting of the heads of Vatican offices last week that he was moving against Burke because he was a source of “disunity” in the church, said one of the participants at the 20 November meeting. The participant spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal the contents of the encounter.
Continue reading...Pope cancelled Saturday activities due to ‘light flu’ a week before key climate address
Pope Francis has undergone hospital tests after he came down with the flu but the results ruled out any respiratory problems, the Vatican said.
Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, underwent a Cat scan, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said.
Continue reading...Alexander Crow, 30, married 18-year-old high school graduate on Friday, according to license filed in Mobile county, Alabama
A Roman Catholic priest in Alabama who was investigated by law enforcement after fleeing to Europe with a recent high school graduate he met through his ministry legally married after he returned to the US with her, a document provided to the Guardian showed.
According to a marriage license filed in Mobile county, Alabama, Alexander Crow, 30, married the 18-year-old former McGill-Toolen Catholic high school student on Friday.
Continue reading...Michael Zacharias’s victims said the priest waited until they began abusing drugs before he sexually trafficked them
A Roman Catholic priest received a life sentence on Friday for his convictions on five counts related to sex-trafficking charges in the molestation of three boys whom prosecutors say he met at an Ohio preschool and coerced to continue sexual activity as adults.
Michael Zacharias, 56, received concurrent, maximum life sentences for counts of sex trafficking a minor and sex trafficking of a minor by force, fraud or coercion. He received concurrent 20-year sentences for two counts of sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud or coercion, and one of similarly trafficking a minor.
Continue reading...Rare move comes after years of criticism from Strickland, a strong supporter of former US president Donald Trump
Pope Francis has dismissed a bishop in Texas, Joseph Strickland, one of his fiercest critics among US Roman Catholic conservatives, the Vatican has said.
It is very rare for a bishop to be relieved of his duties outright. Usually bishops in trouble with the Vatican are asked to resign before submitting a resignation, which the pope accepts.
Continue reading...Scandal-plagued PwC would determine payout rates under scheme proposed by Catholic Church Insurance in effort to avoid insolvency
The Catholic church insurer wants to establish a scheme that would stave off its own insolvency by paying church bodies only a fraction of the money owed to abuse survivors at rates to be determined by the scandal-plagued consultancy PwC, documents show.
Catholic Church Insurance is facing significant financial turmoil due to the rising volume of abuse claims, estimating it has $381m in liabilities relating to professional standards payouts to various church entities, including dioceses and church-aligned charities.
Continue reading...Vatican did not say why Grzegorz Kaszak was resigning, but priest from his diocese faced criminal investigation
The pope has accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop whose diocese has been rocked by reports of a gay orgy involving a male sex worker in a priest’s apartment, as well as previous violent incidents involving his clergy.
The Vatican did not give a reason why Grzegorz Kaszak was resigning as head of the diocese of Sosnowiec, in south-western Poland. At 59, he is several years shy of the normal retirement age of 75.
Continue reading...A new exhibition chronicles the shifting lenses through which Spain’s Catholics saw the country’s Jewish population
The jet, horn, silver and coral amulets placed around the neck of a three-year-old boy in Tàrrega almost seven centuries ago offered no protection against the crowds who massacred him and hundreds of other Jews in the Catalan town in 1348.
Some of the other pieces in a new exhibition at Madrid’s Prado museum that looks at how images were used to shape and define relationships between Jews and Christians in medieval Spain may have been more effective in warding off the escalating antisemitic hatred.
Continue reading...LSE research suggests faith-based admissions requirements deter disadvantaged children
Church of England and Roman Catholic primary schools take fewer pupils with disabilities or special needs than other local schools in England, according to research that suggests faith-based admissions requirements deter pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The findings led the author, Dr Tammy Campbell of the London School of Economics, to conclude that faith schools “serve as hubs of relative advantage” for children from more affluent families who were less likely to have special needs.
Continue reading...Pontiff says rescuing those making Mediterranean crossings is a ‘duty of humanity’ on first visit by a pope to Marseille in 500 years
Pope Francis has decried what he called the “fanaticism of indifference” as people risked their lives on dangerous journeys by boat from north Africa to Europe, amid growing political debate over migration.
Opening an overnight visit to Marseille, the pontiff presided over a silent moment of prayer at a memorial dedicated to sailors and people who died at sea, surrounded by faith leaders and migrant rescue organisations from the Mediterranean port city.
Continue reading...Lawrence Hecker, 92, earlier admitted to having sex with three underage boys in 1960s and 70s, but denied using violence
The retired Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker pleaded not guilty in a New Orleans courtroom on Wednesday, five days after he turned himself in to jail on aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft charges.
He’s accused in a grand jury indictment of raping a teenage boy in 1975 or 1976 after the unnamed victim “resisted to the utmost but … was overcome by force”.
In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
Continue reading...Ulma family including unborn child all beatified for their actions to help Jews during second world war
The Vatican has beatified a Polish family of nine – a married couple and their small children – who were executed by the Nazis during the second world war for sheltering Jews.
During a ceremonious mass in the village of Markowa, in south-east Poland, the papal envoy Cardinal Marcello Semeraro read out the Latin formula of the beatification of the Ulma family signed last month by Pope Francis.
Continue reading...Gregory Aymond’s letter contradicts promises made to schools and churches when archdiocese declared bankruptcy in May 2020
Contradicting promises he made when his archdiocese declared bankruptcy in May 2020, New Orleans’s archbishop, Gregory Aymond, told the area’s Catholic churches, schools and other ministries that they will now have to share some of the costs of resolving hundreds of clergy abuse claims.
Aymond’s notice came in a letter on Friday, at the end of a particularly bad news week for his organization. One day earlier, a grand jury in New Orleans indicted the retired archdiocesan priest Lawrence Hecker on charges of aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft.
Continue reading...Lawrence Hecker, 91, charged with first-degree rape two months after Guardian report on 1999 statement in which he admitted ‘overtly sexual acts’
A retired Catholic priest from New Orleans who years ago secretly admitted to church leaders that he sexually molested or harassed numerous children is now facing criminal charges.
State prosecutors in New Orleans obtained an indictment charging Lawrence Hecker, 91, on Thursday with aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft.
In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
Continue reading...Lawyers say strategy a ‘matter of continuing concern’ after church succeeds in permanently blocking claim by two Indigenous men
Lawyers for two Indigenous abuse survivors have called for reforms to address the “horrendous” Catholic church strategy of seeking to permanently block cases where alleged paedophile priests have died.
On Wednesday, the church was successful in permanently blocking a claim made by two Indigenous survivors relating to alleged abuse committed by David Joseph Perrett, an Armidale assistant priest and convicted child abuser, whose crimes the church has known about since 1995.
Continue reading...Law allows victims of abuse by clerics to file lawsuits for damages regardless of whether deadline had otherwise lapsed
A Louisiana state appeals court has upheld the constitutionality of a law temporarily suspending filing deadlines for people seeking damages over long-ago sexual abuse claims, handing a victory to survivors and a setback to the Roman Catholic diocese opposing them in the case.
The ruling, from a panel of judges with Louisiana’s third circuit court of appeal in Lake Charles, is the first to uphold a 2021 law in the state which opened a three-year window for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits for damages regardless of whether the deadline to do so had otherwise lapsed.
Continue reading...Alex Crow was previously accused of acting inappropriately with students and remains under orders by archdiocese to return home
A Roman Catholic priest in Alabama who fled to Europe with a recent high school graduate whom he met through his work has drawn scrutiny from law enforcement and been told to stop presenting himself in public as a cleric.
Alex Crow, an expert in the theological study of demons and exorcism, is suspected of having “groomed [multiple] young girls” before going to Italy with an 18-year-old, according to an interview that local sheriff Paul Burch recently gave to Fox Nation’s Nancy Grace. The teen’s family has been trying to convince her to return home.
In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International.
Continue reading...Church claims it cannot get fair trial over alleged abuse by the notorious David Joseph Perrett in legal tactic that has drawn widespread criticism
The Catholic church is seeking to use using the death of a “prolific paedophile” priest to permanently prevent a dying Indigenous man from seeking justice for alleged abuse suffered on camping trips in rural New South Wales.
Two survivors are suing the church’s Armidale diocese for the alleged abuse by notorious priest David Joseph Perrett during camping trips from an Aboriginal mission in the mid-1970s.
Continue reading...