News

Media AdvisoryJanuary 22, 2014Hearing Today Could Lead to Release of Secret Documents from the Diocese of Duluth (Duluth, MN) – Today at 1:30PM at a hearing in St. Louis County District Court, the Diocese of Duluth will request Judge David M. Johnson dismiss the public nuisance count in a sexual abuse case involving Father John Nicholson. Today’s hearing could lead to the release of secret documents that detail what the Diocese of Duluth bishops and officials knew about these priests, when they knew it, and what they did in response to the abuse reports will be released. Su…

A former Hakalau resident accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing five of his adopted sons has been located in Florida.Jay Ram was served with the lawsuit, filed in Honolulu Circuit Court in March, earlier this month after being tracked to the rural community of Odessa, outside Tampa, Fla., said Honolulu attorney Mark Gallagher, who is representing the plaintiffs. He had recently moved there from Saipan.Gallagher said Ram, now going by the name Jay Mizraha, is living with three other males, either teenagers or young men. The youngest is believed to be a teenager from Hilo, said Joelle Casteix…

A federal judge has approved a $16 million settlement brokered between sex-abuse victims and the New Rochelle-based Christian Brothers Institute.The settlement was first agreed to in May. Judge Robert Drain’s order on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains means the settlement is now binding on all parties, including the Christian Brothers’ debtors, the group said in a statement.Abuse victims voted in recent weeks to unanimously approve the settlement, which was developed jointly by lawyers for the more than 400 victims, the Christian Brothers and the group’s debtors.“We apologize for…

Churchgoers emerged from Mass at Holy Name Cathedral on Sunday wary of an impending release — announced by church leaders here — of documents detailing the sexual abuse of children at the hands of priests, but optimistic that the Catholic church could finally move beyond the past.Cardinal Francis George, the head of Chicago’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese, penned a letter distributed Sunday at Masses across the city and suburbs announcing the release of the documents. “The church struggles with the past but it’s a way of providing some healing people need,” said Andy Luther, 33, of Villa Park…

Details of sexual abuse by priests, along with information about church officials who may have covered up the abuse, will be turned over next week to attorneys suing the Archdiocese of Chicago and will be made public shortly afterward.Cardinal Francis George announced the move in a letter to priests that will be printed in church bulletins this Sunday.The church files, sought for nearly seven years by plaintiffs’ attorneys, will be handed over Jan. 15 under terms of a court settlement. But they will not become public for at least another week in order to remove victims’ information, according …

Lawyers for a victim of clergy sexual abuse have asked Brown County Court Judge Robert Docherty to order the Diocese of New Ulm to release a list of priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

 News ReleaseJanuary 5, 2014Hearing Monday at 10 AM in New Ulm Regarding Release of Secret List of Priests with Credible Allegations of Sexual Abuse Diocese of New Ulm denying survivor’s request to make public its list of accused priests; is one of two MN dioceses yet to release listWhat:   Hearing on release of Diocese of New Ulm priests listWhen:  Monday, January 6, 2014, at 10:00 a.m.Where:  Brown County Courthouse, 14 South State Street, New Ulm, MN  56073, before the Honorable Judge Robert A. Docherty.Tomorrow at 10 a.m. in a Brown County courtroom, a courage…

Sexual abuse survivor Robert Ethen and his attorneys, Jeff Anderson and Mike Bryant, are calling for Bishop Donald Kettler to release the list of 26 priests in the St. Cloud diocese accused of sexual abuse.

A Sartell man has asked a Stearns County court to order the Diocese of
Saint Cloud to release a list of 26 priests church officials say are
credibly accused of sexual abuse. Robert Ethen, 61, said he was abused in the mid-1960s by the Rev. James
Thoennes. Ethen said the abuse occurred when he was 13 years old, while
on an overnight trip with Thoennes to the home of the priest’s mother in
Sauk Centre.