Search Results for: diocese abuse

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced on Monday that Secretary of State Kathy Bookvar will resign from her position at the end of the week due to her department’s failure to advertise a proposed constitutional amendment that sought to extend the statute of limitations for victims of clergy sexual abuse. In 2018, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh [...]

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and former Bishop Michael Bransfield for knowingly employing child sexual abusers. The Diocese operates six high schools and 19 elementary schools in the state. The Diocese published a report in November that listed 18 priests who have been credibly accused of [...]

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Monday that the identities of 11 clergy implicated in the grand jury investigation of child sexual abuse in Catholic Dioceses in Pennsylvania would not be revealed. The court, citing Article 1, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, ordered that the names of the individuals be permanently redacted on “Report 1” [...]

The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently launched an investigation into the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. The central focus of the inquiry seeks to determine whether there have been violations of federal child sex-crimes and related crimes among Church leaders. This investigation raises a number of critical issues, including the potential impacts on American law and [...]

The German Bishops Conference  released a study  on Tuesday, which found allegations of sexual abuse of minors by 1,670 clerics  of the Catholic Church in Germany between 1946 and 2014. The number of clerics represents 4.4 percent of all of the clerics in Germany in that time frame. The reports specifies that the number is [...]

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow older victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to seek legal redress. The legislation would lift a limitation for accusers over the age of 30 from seeking legal action for abuses suffered when they were children. The bill also lifts entirely the [...]

The Cardinal of the Archdiocese of New York on Thursday announced  that he has secured outside assistance from a former federal judge and prosecutor to investigate church policies surrounding sexual abuse allegations. Barbara Jones is a former judge who served on the bench for 16 years in the US District Court for the Southern District [...]

After the release of the grand jury report  last month that exposed  widespread abuse within the Catholic Church, hundreds of victims across Pennsylvania have been invited to join a massive class action lawsuit filed  in Allegheny County on Monday. Plaintiffs Ryan O’Connor and Kristen Hancock, on behalf of her minor child, are suing all eight [...]

A grand jury report  released by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Tuesday found that the Roman Catholic Church covered up more than 1,000 sexual abuse allegations against more than 300 priests across six Pennsylvania dioceses. The report comprised the findings of the Fortieth statewide investigating grand jury , a grand jury convened in  2016 by [...]

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued a stay of proceedings Wednesday, suspending the release of a grand jury investigation regarding sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests. The report was expected to run hundreds of pages long, including interviews with victims, covering six dioceses . There is no information as to who filed the appeal for [...]