“Last Friday, a judge in San Diego ordered the Diocese of San Diego to release over 10,000 documents detailing the Diocese’s failings in its handling of child sexual abuse by its clergy. The documents come from personnel files of individual offending priests credibly accused who were known child abusers yet were moved from parish to parish, diocese to diocese, and often never removed from ministry. We commend the court for ordering these documents released, but we do so with regret that this order did not come sooner. Over the years that the church was allowe…
News & Events
Milwaukee Archbishop Wants to Settle Lawsuits By Jay Olstad MILWAUKEE – Facing tough economic choices, the Archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki wants to settle a dozen sex abuse lawsuits that may push the Diocese into bankruptcy. “In our minds, the best way to do it is go to mediation and bring both sides together in hopes of coming to a successful resolution,” said Listecki. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee will enter into mediation with several sexual abuse victims Monday in Chicago. The victims accuse the Diocese of moving pedophile priests from church to church without telling…
US judge asks Vatican to serve court paper to pope By DINESH RAMDE (AP) – 1 hour ago MILWAUKEE — A federal U.S. judge is asking the Vatican to cooperate in serving the pope and two other top officials with court papers that stem from decades-old allegations of sexual abuse by a priest in Wisconsin. The request is an incremental step in a lawsuit that accuses the officials of conspiring to keep the allegations against the Milwaukee priest quiet. The Vatican is not obliged to comply with the request. When faced with similar requests the Vatican has made service difficult, time-consum…
In the Terry Kohut case, involving the St. John’s School for the Deaf, a Federal Court in Wisconsin issued letters rogatory which request the Vatican’s assistance in serving Terry Kohut’s lawsuit on Cardinals Ratzinger (the current Pope), Sodano, and Bertone.
A deaf man is one step closer to forcing Pope Benedict and two of his top aides to answer for..
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland is facing a fifth lawsuit over a former priest accused of sexually abusing multiple children.
This weekend CNN will air a documentary about the Pope’s involvement in clergy sexual abuse. What the Pope Knew debuts Saturday at 8 pm EST and runs again Saturday at 11 pm EST and Sunday at 8 pm and 11pm EST. Until now most of the coverage about the Pope and his role in clergy sexual abuse has focused on individual cases. CNN’s documentary takes a much broader look at the Pope’s decisions when he was an Archbishop in Germany and when he was in charge of the Vatican’s department that was supposed to deal with clergy sexual abuse. More information about the documentary is available at CNN’s bel…
Editor’s note: A one-hour CNN special, “What the Pope Knew,” will air Sept. 25 and Sept. 26, 8pm and 11pm ET. This story is drawn from that exclusive report. By Scott BronsteinCNN Special Investigations Unit MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin – Terry Kohut has kept a dark secret for nearly 50 years. Now he is breaking his silence, becoming a key figure in the sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and the growing controversy over what Pope Benedict XVI did about it. When Kohut was barely a teen, and for years afterward, he says, he was sexually molested and assaulted by the headmaster and priest …
An article in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune about the case of Gregg Larsen and his exploitation of foster children in his care highlights how important our state and county agencies are to protecting our most vulnerable. Much has been written about ways to protect our kids from sexual exploitation. However, what happens to those children who have no one to watch over them. Foster children
An associate of St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who often sues clergy members in sexual abuse cases, says Hennepin County and the state of Minnesota may be liable for actions of a foster parent convicted of producing and possessing child pornography. Attorney Patrick Noaker, who works in Anderson’s firm, served notice to the county and state last month that three foster children and their parents may have a claim involving Gregg A. Larsen, a former special education…
A former St. Paul schoolteacher has been sued again – this time by two foster children and their guardians – for allegedly using the children to produce pornography. Gregg Alan Larsen, 49, of Minneapolis worked as a special education teacher at Central High School until he resigned May 4. Two weeks later, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of producing child pornography. He pleaded guilty in the criminal case and awaits sentencing. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, alleges that Larsen used two brothers, ages 5 and 7, for pornography. He “engaged (them) i
OAKLAND — Survivors of sexual abuse by a local priest have filed two lawsuits against the Diocese of Oakland and church officials who they said allowed abuse by Stephen Kiesle to continue unchecked. “The diocese could have stopped this,” said Teresa Rosson, one of the accusers. Rosson, who is Kiesle’s stepdaughter, said he began sexually abusing her from the time she was 11 years old until 2001. She is now 48. Instead, she said, “They delivered him into our churches with our kids.” She said the abuse began when Kiesle served at St. Joseph’s parish in Pinole in 1972 — the year he was or
Six women and one man who alleged they were sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest decades ago filed two separate lawsuits Wednesday alleging the Diocese of Oakland was negligent in hiring the priest and failed to warn parents of potential abuse.
One of the most promising lawsuits from sexual abuse victims seeking to link the Vatican to the American priest abuse scandal has imploded in Kentucky, but a prominent plaintiffs’ attorney says it shouldn’t affect two other lawsuits aimed directly at Rome.
The leader of a northern Minnesota Christian retreat center took advantage of his grandfather-like role in a girl’s life and inappropriately touched and kissed her, according to the girl’s attorneys.