A Connecticut judge’s ruling today will allow a high-profile child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit to move forward. It involves a prominent cleric who was close to Pope John Paul II and the controversial religious order he founded and led for decades. In a 15 page Memorandum of Decision issued today…
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A woman who says she was sexually abused by a former priest in northern Minnesota when she was 14 has reached a $750,000 settlement that requires the Diocese of Crookston to warn parishioners about the abuse and take steps to protect kids in the future. Megan Peterson, now 21, of Thief River Falls, appeared at a news conference Tuesday in St. Paul to announce the settlement. She chose to come forward “to let people know they are not alone.” “I’m here today to speak my truth, and to protect kids,” she said. Peterson says she was a teenager with aspirations of becoming a nun when she was rape…
Prominent Victims’ Attorney Jeff Anderson Reacts to Release of Graves’ Report The report made public today by the law firm hired by Bishop Finn is both misleading and self-serving. We stood with and sued the Diocese and the Bishop for the failure to act when they had sufficient information to remove Ratigan and didn’t. We stand by the allegations of the Complaint that Diocese officials had sufficient information in 2006 to both act and react; and if Bishop Finn had acted in accord with the law and protocol for child protection, some children may not have been har…
The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph failed to follow its own
procedures and polices when reporting allegations of child sex abuse
against the Rev. Shawn F. Ratigan, an independent investigation found.Conducted
by former United States Attorney Todd Graves and his team, the 141-page
review concluded Msgr. Robert Murphy, vicar general of the diocese,
waited too long to advise the Independent Review Board of allegations
against Rev. Ratigan, which allowed him to continue to abuse children
and defy child protective boundaries set forth by Bishop Robert Finn.Those
allegations inclu…
For months after finding troubling images on a computer, the Catholic
diocese tried on its own to deal with Father Shawn Ratigan.As a
result, a report released Thursday said, the Diocese of Kansas City-St.
Joseph went off track, bungling its own investigation and failing to
even follow its own policies.An investigation by a former federal
prosecutor found that “individuals in positions of authority reacted to
events in ways that could have jeopardized the safety of children in
diocesan parishes, schools and families.
Clergy
Abuse Attorney Jeff Anderson: Graves report just words–it is the actions that
matter
Prominent Victims’ Attorney Jeff
Anderson Reacts to Release of Graves’ Report
The report made public today by
the law firm hired by Bishop Finn is both misleading and self-serving. We stood with and sued the Diocese and the
Bishop for the failure to act when they had sufficient information to remove
Ratigan and didn’t. We stand by the allegations
of the Complaint that Diocese officials had sufficient information in 2006 to
both act and react…
For more than a quarter of a century, Angel Santiago has suffered from a recurring nightmare. “Father [Joseph] Fitzharris chasing me in my dreams,” the 44-year-old Bensenville man said. On Monday, Santiago joined his attorneys to announce that a settlement has been reached with the Archdiocese of Chicago for sexual abuse Santiago suffered as a boy at the hands of his family’s priest, Fitzharris. Attorneys with the case declined to specify the monetary amount of the settlement. The archdiocese confirmed the settlement. “The settlements announced [Monday] confirm that this process works, and…
BOSTON — Cardinal Sean O’Malley on Thursday released a long-awaited list of priests accused of child sex abuse in Boston in the last 60 years, but he opted not to include certain priests, including ones who died without being publicly charged. In a letter, O’Malley said 248 of Boston’s priests and two deacons have been accused of child sex abuse since 1950. But he said he decided against releasing 91 of the names, including the deceased priests who weren’t publicly accused; those working in Boston under religious orders or other…
New lawsuit: Chicago teen was abused by Father McCormack after Archdiocese was aware of police investigation Further, abuse continued after Archdiocese refused to follow its own review board’s recommendation to remove McCormack from ministry in October 2005
Jeff Anderson’s office might look like a museum, with its stained glass windows and vintage pulpit chairs. But the firm’s harried staff hardly resembles the hushed figures of the typical arts organization. Here, nobody pauses to admire the antiquities. They only stop to shout as Anderson speeds through. “Nice article in The Philadelphia Inquirer this morning,” bellows John Wodele, a publicist on contract with Jeff Anderson & Associates. Little surprise there. Anderson, the world’s pre-eminent counsel for survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, is a lightning rod for media coverage…