NY’s Bishop John Jenik abused others, alleged victim says

The alleged victim of New York’s Bishop John Jenik spoke at a Nov. 1 press conference about his experiences with the bishop, which he said involved years of sexual abuse. Jenik, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of New York, maintains his innocence. Michael Meenan, 52, said that Jenik cultivated an inappropriate relationship with him during the 1980s that involved dozens of trips upstate to Jenik’s country house, where he allegedly was groped while in bed with Jenik.

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2018/11/03/nys-bishop-john-jenik-abused-others-alleged-victim-says/ 

Sociologist: Clergy Sex Abuse On Rise Again, And Church Leaders Ignoring Why

After years in decline, Catholic clergy sex abuse could be on the rise again, warns a professor-priest’s analysis of relevant data. The professor’s report sees a rising trend in abuse, and argues that the evidence strongly suggests links between sexual abuse of minors and two factors: a disproportionate number of homosexual clergy, and the manifestation of a “homosexual subculture” in seminaries.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/03112018-sociologist-clergy-sex-abuse-on-rise-again-and-church-leaders-ignoring-why/ 

Spain child abuse: Victims fight back and appeal for change

The priest who tortured me is still giving Mass in the village down the road," says Emiliano Álvarez, a 52-year-old from Borrenes, north-western Spain. Like other victims who have come forward, Mr Álvarez claims he was abused by staff at the Seminario Menor boarding school in La Bañeza, in Zamora province, and that Spain's Catholic Church authorities have done little about it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46064017 

Christianity and the elephant in the room

A US Grand Jury report released during August exposed more than 300 predator priests and uncovered over a thousand of their victims in Pennsylvania alone, resulting last month in the first ever subpoena to be served on a Catholic diocese in that American state. The elephant in the Vatican underlying the problem of widespread sexual abuse and its cover-up by the hierarchy is its policy of celibacy, imposed by the flimsiest biblical authority. This tradition, invented by the church long after the Gospels recording the teachings of Christ were written, has made paedophiles of priests, bishops and cardinals. It can spell the beginning of the end of the Christian era. But is there a pontiff courageous enough to dare reverse it?

https://cyprus-mail.com/2018/11/04/christianity-and-the-elephant-in-the-room/ 

Wolf a clear choice for governor

Pennsylvania is better than off than it was four years ago and Gov. Tom Wolf deserves some of the credit for it. Not all, but some. While completing a timely budget remains a hurdle for Wolf and the state legislature, his level-headed approach to governance over the past four years has earned him another four years in Harrisburg. His opponent, Scott Wagner, offers a fiery alternative, but his temperament is not what Pennsylvania needs right now.

https://www.dailyitem.com/opinion/wolf-a-clear-choice-for-governor/article_7f500eaf-081f-51bd-b2f3-16bde7edc57d.html 

Catholic bishops promised reform in sex-abuse scandal. But they didn’t look at their own misdeeds

American bishops promised reform after the clergy sexual abuse scandal exploded in Boston. But they largely ignored the misdeeds of one group: themselves. Bishop Robert Finn wasn’t going anywhere. He never alerted authorities about photos of young girls’ genitals stashed on a pastor’s laptop. He kept parishioners in the dark, letting the priest mingle with children and families. Even after a judge found the bishop guilty of failing to report the priest’s suspected child abuse — and after 200,000 people petitioned for his ouster — he refused to go.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/11/03/bishops/qVYEiZ5SY5wVzCgA3gvN5O/story.html 

Will the Catholic Diocese Whistleblower Face Legal Ramifications?

For months, Siobhan O'Connor leaked confidential church documents that highlighted the scope of the priest sex abuse scandal and its cover-up within the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo. But what legal fallout might she face? "The law will only recognize the confidentiality of a document if it's considered privileged or if it's a trade secret or some special category of document,” explained Christine Bartholomew, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo School of Law. “If they were confidential simply because the diocese wanted them to remain confidential, that is not something that creates criminal liability. She might still have civil liability depending on her terms of employment contract, but the law is pretty protective of whistleblowers.”

http://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/news/2018/10/30/legal-analysis-of-diocese-whistleblower 

Priest sexually battered 17-year-old altar girl who is now pregnant, Ohio cops say

An Ohio priest faces felony charges after authorities accused him of sexually abusing an altar girl who is now pregnant. Father Henry Christopher Foxhoven, a 45-year-old priest at Holy Cross in Glouster, Ohio, was charged Tuesday with eight counts of sexual battery in the case, according to a press release from the Athens County Sheriff’s Office. Foxhoven is accused of abusing the 17-year-old girl, who was a parishioner at Holy Cross, from Aug. 17 to Oct. 25, deputies said.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article220867505.html 

SC sex abuse victim of ex-priest: 'He put a gun to my head and threatened to kill me'

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — It’s a story we brought you earlier this week, a former Catholic priest from Savannah pleaded guilty to nine counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor in a South Carolina courthouse. The minors were just 9 and 13 years old at the time. In an exclusive interview, ABC News4 spoke one on one with one of those victims. After his abuser went to prison, locked up for 20 years, Allan Ranta decided to speak.

https://wach.com/news/local/sex-abuse-victim-of-savannah-ex-priest-he-put-a-gun-to-my-head-and-threatened-to-kill-me 

Feds put Catholic church across the nation on notice: Don't destroy any evidence of abuse

The federal investigation into Catholic priest abuse now includes every diocese in the nation. U.S. Attorney William McSwain has put every archdiocese, diocese and Catholic entity on notice to preserve and not destroy evidence of priest abuse or a cover-up. An attorney for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops told the York Daily Record Friday the organization is complying with a request from the U.S. Department of Justice.

https://www.ydr.com/story/news/2018/10/26/catholic-priest-abuse-all-us-dioceses-now-included-federal-investigation/1779082002/ 

The Smoke of Satan: an excerpt from the introduction

In Jerusalem, just outside the walled Old City, stands the church of St. Peter in Gallicantu: St. Peter as the Cock Crows. Catholic churches are regularly dedicated to saints, but only rarely to a particular moment in a saint’s life. Then again, this is no ordinary saint, no ordinary moment. St. Peter in Gallicantu was built in the 5th century, and rebuilt by Crusaders, on the spot traditionally thought to have been the site where Caiaphas the high priest lived, where Jesus was brought to stand trial. In the courtyard of that house, Peter three times denied that he was a follower of Christ. The Gospel of Luke (22:60-62) recounts the incident:

https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/the-city-gates.cfm?id=1659 

The Feds Are Coming

Federal investigations of U.S. Catholic dioceses are now underway in seven of the eight dioceses of Pennsylvania and Buffalo, New York. All U.S. dioceses, however, received a letter from federal investigators last Tuesday putting them on notice that files in their so-called secret archives may need to be searched in the near future.

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/the-feds-are-coming 

Catholic church split over abuse scandal gravity.

Vatican City: Pope Francis has vowed to end clerical sexual abuse, but bishops from Asia and Africa have shown a mixed response to a scandal some have termed a "Western problem". Church leaders from around the world attended the closing mass Sunday of a month-long meeting, or synod, which many had hoped would take the global struggle against paedophile priests up a notch. As the talks began, Francis warned again that abuse and cover ups would not be tolerated.

http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/428137/Catholic-church-split-over-abuse-scandal-gravity