Today, Vice News released the documentary Love Serve Surrender, a powerful film about the struggle of five boys in Hawaii to expose Jay Ram, the foster father who sexually abused them and more than two dozen more.If ever there were a case where moral value and public imperative are tantamount, this case is it.Throughout their adult lives, Jay’s adopted and foster sons climbed a mountain of adversity. They struggled with the shame and trauma of their abuse and their life with Jay on his Big Island farm. Then, when they were strong enough to try and protect other children, they were turned back …
News & Events
(CNN) — Pope Francis made his strongest condemnation yet of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy on Friday, asking for forgiveness and pledging to impose penalties on “men of the church” who harm children.”I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil which some priests — quite a few in number, obviously not compared to the number of all the priests — to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children,” the Pope said in remarks quoted by Vatican Radio.”The church is aware of this damage, it is personal, moral damage carried out by men of the…
Some have referred to it as “pass the trash”. Some have referred to it more diplomatically as the “geographic solution”. No matter what you call it, the practice is the same. When a cleric abuses a child, the cleric is simply relocated away from the problem to another location. In some cases the cleric is relocated to a neighboring parish and in some cases the cleric re-appears far away in another state or country.Recent information emerging from the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania highlights the immense geographic barriers utilized by the Church worldwide to obscure …
News ReleaseApril 7, 2014
Sex
abuse lawsuit filed against diocese, former bishopNew Hawaii predator priest exposed
Deadline
to come forward, use courts is April 24
(Honolulu, HI) – Less than three weeks before a legal
deadline, a Honolulu man has come forward and filed a lawsuit charging that he
was sexually abused by Catholic priests and a former Catholic bishop.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, says that the victim, John Roe 27, was sexually
abused at St. Stephen’s Seminary and Damien Memorial School. The boy was a
14-year-old student at St. Stephen’s in 1968 when …
(Honolulu, HI) – Less than three weeks before a legal deadline, a Honolulu man has come forward and filed a lawsuit charging that he was sexually abused by Catholic priests and a former Catholic bishop.The lawsuit, filed Friday, says that the victim, John Roe 27, was sexually abused at St. Stephen’s Seminary and Damien Memorial School. The boy was a 14-year-old student at St. Stephen’s in 1968 when Fr. William Queenan began …
News ReleaseApril 7, 2014
Sex
abuse lawsuit filed against diocese, former bishopNew Hawaii predator priest exposed
Deadline
to come forward, use courts is April 24
(Honolulu, HI) – Less than three weeks before a legal
deadline, a Honolulu man has come forward and filed a lawsuit charging that he
was sexually abused by Catholic priests and a former Catholic bishop.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, says that the victim, John Roe 27, was sexually
abused at St. Stephen’s Seminary and Damien Memorial School. The boy was a
14-year-old student at St. Stephen’s in 1968 when …
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Thursday that it has contacted nearly 50 law enforcement agencies in the past two weeks to provide files on priests accused of child sexual abuse. However, none of 12 metro law enforcement agencies contacted by MPR News confirmed that the archdiocese had offered files to review.
Recent reports that a Twin Cities youth pastor was charged with trying to solicit nude photos from girls ages 13 to 15 via social media sites serve as a reminder that churches and other organizations that work with youth have a long way to go regarding protecting minors from adult predators.Matthew T. Boos, 24, of St. Louis Park, Minn., a youth pastor at River Valley Church in Savage, Minn., was charged Monday with two felonies related to soliciting sexual conduct with a minor via electronic communications. He allegedly posed as a 15-year-old girl on Facebook and other sites and solicited girls..
Newly released church documents involving clergy working in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis describe one priest allegedly sexually abusing a brain-injured woman and another abusing a teenage boy who killed himself and his wife years later in a murder-suicide. The new details were revealed in a statement by the archdiocese late Monday as part of a lawsuit that is also compelling Archbishop John Nienstedt to testify under oath Wednesday about decades’ worth of alleged abuse. The archdiocese was ordered by a judge to disclose tens of thousands of pages of documents…
News ReleaseApril 1, 2014Judge Allows Unprecedented Legal Claims to Move Forward in Lawsuit Involving Father Curtis Wehmeyer Claims include nuisance and spoliation of evidence(St. Paul, MN) – Today, Ramsey County Judge John Van de North issued an Order allowing Doe 31, who was sexually abused by Father Curtis Wehmeyer, to move forward with legal claims for nuisance and spoliation and offered Doe 31 a chance to amend the complaint filed on January 30, 2014 to include additional details in support of false advertising and deceptive trade practices claims to demonstrate the Archdiocese…
Local Catholic church officials have released new details about a pair of abusive priests showing that one priest was accused of sexually abusing a brain-injured woman and another sexually abused a boy who did not want his community to know what happened. That victim later killed himself and his wife in a murder-suicide, the church said. The disclosures are part of a lawsuit in Ramsey County Court that is also compelling Archbishop John Nienstedt and former Vicar General Kevin McDonough to testify under oath about a wide range of cases over decades where the archdiocese learned of abuses by …
31 Mar: Diocese Says Former Blue Earth Priest Will Be Deported After Pleading Guilty to Sexual Abuse
WINONA, Minn. — A Minnesota priest was taken into custody at his Monday sentencing and will be deported after admitting he fondled a girl while attending dinner at her grandmother’s home.The Rev. Leo Koppala will be held by the Department of Homeland Security until his deportation proceedings and likely sent back to his native India, according to a statement from the Diocese of Winona said.Koppala pleaded guilty March 17 to second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a victim younger than 13. He was sentenced to 25 years of supervised probation and ordered to register as a sex offender.The…
An eighth-grader reported last month that a teaching assistant at her St. Paul school sent her a nude photo of himself, made comments about her leggings and her butt, and asked her to meet to “find a secluded place where they could kiss,” according to a police report about the now-fired staffer.The girl said “she did not agree to … since it felt ‘weird’ or ‘wrong,’ ” the report said.
The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office has asked the St. Paul Police Department to reopen two cases related to its investigation into the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Talk is cheap. In the case of Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles J. Chaput, talk is also cynical, misleading and hurtful.Chaput apologized to survivors of clergy sex abuse during a homily at a “Mass for Healing for Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse” Saturday in Philadelphia. Chaput also acknowledged the negligence of the “church’s pastors” in allowing the abuse to occur. What Chaput didn’t do – and hasn’t done – is take action to help sexual abuse survivors. In fact, he’s taken actions that hurt them. Let’s take a look at what Chaput hasn’t done. He hasn’t supported extending the Penns…