In February 2017, Al Jazeera’s 101 East produced this 25-minute documentary feature about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the Philippines. It’s a great primer for anyone interested in learning more about the clergy sexual abuse crisis in this VERY Catholic country. Here’s a peek at what you’ll see: The Catholic Church in…Continue reading What’s Going on in the Philippines: 101 East’s Sins of the Father
In the introduction to this series, I called the Philippines the “Holy Grail” of cover-up. Simply put, it’s the place where priests accused of abuse can hang out and still be priests. In fact, it doesn’t matter whether or not the priests abused in the Philippines or elsewhere. The Philippines is a place where treatment…Continue reading What’s Going on the Philippines Part One: The Priest Who Broke the Rule
August is usually a very quiet time in my line of work. Not so much this year. There are currently more than 100 cases of child sexual abuse and a now controversial canonical trial on the island of Guam. Hundreds of sex abuse cases are winding through the courts in Minnesota. The Keepers controversy has everyone on…Continue reading What’s Going on in the Philippines? A New Series
Fr. Justin Wachs was hiding out. After getting caught sexually harassing a parishioner in 2014—touching her without permission and leaving her suggestive notes— he quit his job as pastor in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Church officials thought the “geographic solution” would be best: get him as far away from Sioux Falls as possible. They even…Continue reading Apuron’s victims: Locked in a room with a priest on a run
This week, a lawyer for the Claretian Missionaries announced that Bruce Wellems was forced to petition the Vatican to give up his collar. That’s right. He can’t be a priest. For those of you who have been following this blog, that’s huge news. But for this person, it’s vindication: That’s Eric Johnson. Bruce Wellems was…Continue reading Some Good News in the Saga of Bruce Wellems
To register, or not to register? That is the question. For those of you just catching up, the IRCPs, or the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Programs, are programs for certain survivors of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn. If victims qualify, they may get financial compensation. But the…Continue reading The Ins and Outs of the IRCP Part 4: Hamlet’s Dilemma
Sorry for the gap since Part 2. I was on vacation. Then I ended up on the news. He’s been called The Master of Disasters, a brand unto himself, and the Compensation Czar. Kenneth Feinberg (pictured above), the man who, with his assistant Camille Biros (read this recent New York Times article about her),…Continue reading The Ins and Outs of the IRCP Part 3: Who is Kenneth Feinberg?
Part two of this series was originally going to be a little about IRCP plan administrator Ken Feinberg, but since the Diocese of Brooklyn has posted its official IRCP website (full of legalese), I thought I would go over some of the details here. * Brooklyn IRCP Bishop DiMarzio and the Diocese of Brooklyn…Continue reading The Ins and Outs of the IRCP Part 2: Phases and Deadlines
Brian Toale just sent me this regarding his work in New York on the CVA. I asked if I could publish it here. There was so much rawness here. It shows that the survivors who went to Albany were very different from the paid lobbyists who went on behalf of the NY Catholic Conference. *****…Continue reading Guest Post: Brian Toale
~PART ONE OF A MULTI-PART SERIES ON THE IRCP~ I had planned on talking about the Archdiocese of New York’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP) in this blog, but I wanted to wait until after the end of the current New York legislative session. My hope was that the plan would be rendered redundant—that…Continue reading The Ins and Outs of the IRCP: Is it a Hoax? Why Brooklyn?
And the corpse of the New York Child Victims Act isn’t even cool yet. Brooklyn Bishop DiMarzio (pictured above) has issued a written statement announcing an Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Plan mirroring that of Cardinal Dolan’s IRCP across the river. These plans compensate victims for the child sex abuse they suffered, while keeping documents, evidence, and…Continue reading Breaking: Diocese of Brooklyn announces Dolan-esque compensation plan
This would have been Part Eight, except for one little loophole: Guam/the Archdiocese of Agaña is NOT TECHNICALLY a member of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The Archdiocese of Agaña is a member of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (CE-PAC). Guam’s disgraced Archbishop Anthony Apuron (pictured above with the pope) used to attend USCCB meetings…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, (Dis)Honorable Mention: Guam and the Hope and Healing Hoax
Netflix’s recent documentary, The Keepers, has been a blockbuster for true crime and documentary fans (it was the talk of CrimeCon). A gripping tale of abuse, cover-up, and murder, the series tells the story of how a group of former students are trying to find justice for their teacher Sister Cathy Cesnik, a murdered nun…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part Seven: Sister Cathy Turns Baltimore into a Troll
Joel Wright (being led away in handcuffs above) was a legally blind seminarian at Columbus, Ohio’s Pontifical College Josephinum in 2016 when he was arrested for attempting to buy a one- and four-year-old child off of Craigslist to rape and molest. A native of Steubenville, Wright had wanted to be a priest for many years. In…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part Six: A seminarian in Ohio attempts to buy babies. The Bishop? He pretends nothing happened
In 2013, Minnesota passed a landmark bill that allowed victims of child sexual abuse to use the civil courts to expose their abuser, no matter when the abuse took place. We are hoping to get one passed in New York right now. Ensuing lawsuits showed that the Archdiocese under Archbishop John Nienstedt (pictured above) and…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part Five: Naughty Nienstedt and the Vatican Shred
Jose Alexis Davila accepted a plea deal for battery against a 20-year-old female parishioner in 2012. The plea agreement came when the victim was too scared to testify. Why? Well, a parishioner ‘lynch mob’ tried to stop her mother from attending prayer group and accosted her brother. They also called her a liar and a slut. Nice. Then-San…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part Four: Convicted Priest Deemed “Safe” by Oklahoma City Archbishop, Catholics Rightly Upset
<– Back to Part Two: Is There a Crook in the Diocese of Crookston? In 2014, Fr. Bruce Wellems was banned from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Church officials there found out that he had sexually abused a seven-year-old boy when Wellems was fifteen. Los Angeles booted him back to Chicago where he had ministered for years.…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part Three: A Priest Admits Abusing, Chicago Cardinal Does Nothing
<– Back to Part One: Altoona-Johnstown Last month, Crookston, MN Catholic deacon and child sex abuse survivor Ron Vasek (pictured above) came forward and filed a lawsuit saying that “Crookston Bishop Michael Hoeppner threatened to undermine his religious work and that of his son’s [a priest in that diocese] if he didn’t retract a child…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part Two: Is There a Crook in the Diocese of Crookston?
Read the Introduction to this series here. In 2016, the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General announced that “a statewide investigating grand jury has determined that hundreds of children were sexually abused over a period of at least 40 years by priests or religious leaders assigned to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.” The two-year investigation…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part One: The Altoona-Johnstown Grand Jury Report
The 2002 Dallas Bishops’ Conference was a barn-burner. On the heels of the Spotlight series and scandals in dioceses across the nation, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) got together at their annual June meeting to put together “massive reforms.” Those reforms became the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and…Continue reading Fifteen Years After Dallas, A Seven-Part Series: Introduction
