Damned Pervert Priests - and other assorted Holy Scumbags

[Fake Messiah]

Pope says sex abuse is ‘demonic’ as he weighs in on new scandal in French church

Abbé Pierre, who died in 2007, was one of France’s most beloved public figures. The founder of the international Emmaus Community for the poor, Abbé Pierre had served as part of France’s conscience since the 1950s, when he persuaded Parliament to pass a law — still on the books — forbidding landlords to evict tenants during winter.

Emmaus International this week revealed that it had substantiated 17 more claims against its late founder, adding to the seven that were made public in July when it revealed the claims amounted to “sexual assault or sexual harassment.” The scandal set off outrage among French Catholics, for whom Abbe Pierre was a hero and icon.

Francis called Abbe Pierre a “terrible sinner” but that such a “shameful crime” was also the “human condition.”

According to Emmaus, the new 17 cases involve women who reported behavior similar to that reported by the first seven victims, extending the abuse allegations from 1950s and 2000s. Their claims involved “unsolicited breast touching and forced kisses,” as well as repeated sexual contact with a vulnerable person, sexual penetration with an adult woman and sexual contact with a child, according to Emmaus.

The case of Abbe Pierre is the latest involving a revered, charismatic Catholic leader who turns out to have been a sexual predator. It is similar in some ways to the scandal involving another French icon, Jean Vanier, who founded the L’Arche movement to care for people with disabilities and was later found to have engaged in misconduct with adult women.

Francis had to confront a similar case during his visit to East Timor. Timorese Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent campaign for independence, but the Vatican revealed in 2022 that he had been sanctioned for sexually abusing young boys. Belo was allowed by St. John Paul II to retire quietly in 2002, and the Holy See has never revealed what it knew and when about his crimes.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-abuse-ab...64fe71e927

[zebo-the-fat]

The pope calls it demonic, yet he still allows the church to spend millions defending pedo priests.

[Fake Messiah]

Catalan to English

Victims of Church abuse protest before Parliament against the delivery of the Medal of Honor to Montserrat Abbey

Victims of sexual abuse by the Church have protested this Tuesday afternoon at the gates of Parliament during the delivery ceremony of the House Medal of Honor at the Abbey of Montserrat.

“It is totally incomprehensible that Parliament, instead of standing next to the victims, is placed next to the executioners”, Miguel Hurtado has stated, denouncing abuses in the abbey, which has pointed out “the cover ” and “protection” of the institution to Brother Andreu Soler. “Mr. Illa, the Generalitat, the President and the Bureau of Parliament have lost any legitimacy with the collective of victims of sexual violence”, has said.

In statements to the media at the gates of Parliament, Miguel Hurtado has considered that “today is a very sad day for victims of sexual violence because Parliament has decided to honor an institution that has covertly and protected a sexual predators for decades.” In this regard, he has denounced how the scandal of Brother Andreu Soler did not come to light until Hurtado himself denounced it in 2019.

“Montserrat abbey is an example of bad practices, it represents the worst values in our land: abuse of power and impunity”, has criticized the victim. “This is not a problem with some rotten apples, but the whole barrel is rotten”, he said.

https://www.social.cat/noticia/21701/vic...-montserra

[Fake Messiah]

SO VERY LITTLE HAS CHANGED: Church officials "did not remove (a now-arrested Louisiana priest) from working until THIS PAST DECEMBER, though his accusers had previously attempted to report him to church authorities, police or both in prior years. . ."

Texas grand jury indicts Catholic priest on three felony sexual assault charges

The charges against Odiong – who was first arrested in July – involve two women. He could receive up to life imprisonment if convicted of the first-degree charge, a stiffer penalty that stems from the fact that the alleged victim in the case was a woman whom Odiong was prohibited from “marrying or purporting to marry” under Texas law. The second-degree counts each carry up to 20 years in prison in what is one of only about a dozen states with a law that criminalizes sexual activity between clergymen and adults who emotionally depend on their spiritual advice.

Police in Waco arrested Odiong months after the Guardian published a report detailing prior allegations that ranged from sexual coercion and unwelcome touching to financial abuse, all made by women whom he met through his work as a priest.

With respect to the other woman, he allegedly managed to pressure the victim into letting her husband sodomize her despite her faith-based objections to that form of sexual intimacy – while also successfully urging her to narrate her experience to him.

Investigators also alleged that they found digital child abuse imagery in Odiong’s possession.

Aymond also guided New Orleans’ archdiocese into federal bankruptcy reorganization amid the fallout from a clergy molestation scandal that has engulfed the organization for decades. On Friday, the archdiocese offered an average of $125,000 to settle its legal differences with about 500 clergy abuse claimants. The claimants are demanding an average of $2.5m each, which would be the largest settlement in the history of US Catholic church bankruptcies.

Aymond’s archdiocese did not remove Odiong from working in Luling until this past December, though his accusers had previously attempted to report him to church authorities, police or both in prior years, according to a Guardian investigation into Odiong.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...lt-charges

[Fake Messiah]

Another Catholic institution tries to block child sex-abuse lawsuits

NEW ORLEANS — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette challenged the constitutionality of a state law that let child molestation victims sue for long-ago abuse. The Louisiana Supreme Court rejected it.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans is offering abuse victims less than 10% of what they are requesting in a bankruptcy settlement, in part by arguing the so-called “lookback window” law doesn’t apply to more than 600 abuse claims filed.

And now, a third Roman Catholic organization is taking another bite at the apple, asking a federal judge to strike down the same Louisiana law.

Behind this latest effort are the Dominican Sisters of Peace in Baton Rouge and a law firm that boasts about having represented Catholic institutions in court for more than a century.

“If anyone could undo the will of the Louisiana state supreme court, the Catholic church can and will,” the plaintiff in that case said in an interview with the Guardian.

The plaintiff said he considered it hypocritical for a prominent Catholic leader like New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond – who heads the state’s Conference of Catholic Bishops – to publicly profess his moral support for the efforts by victims of clergy molestation to be made whole while his attorneys are simultaneously “continuing to fight” maneuvers that improve the potential value of survivors’ claims for damages.

“If Catholic groups use bogus constitutional challenges to delay justice for another three years, we could see 15-20% of survivors die, give up hope, or otherwise drop out of litigation,” Schubert said. “That would save the Church millions upon millions of dollars.”

https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/inves...d534969133

[Fake Messiah]

Catholic Diocese of Springfield accused in federal lawsuit of concealing child sex abuse

In a federal lawsuit filed by 11 individuals, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau and its Bishop Edward Rice in his official capacity are accused of enabling and concealing sexual abuse of minors by employees that took place over decades.

Filed Sept. 12 in U.S. District Court's Western District of Missouri, the lawsuit demands $75 million for the victims, who allege they experienced sexual abuse in the 1980s and 1990s. The lawsuit names seven different priests and clergy, only one of whom appears on the diocese's published list of clergy with allegations of abuse, which was last updated September 2023.

"The Diocese and Bishop did not act in any manner to protect the young children of its parishes, churches, community, and other organizations within its (area of operation)," the complaint filed in court reads. "To the contrary, the Bishop and Diocese engaged in several decades of intentional misconduct in turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse of its priests and other employees."

The lawsuit also accuses the diocese and bishop of fraud by publicly representing clergy as "men of excellent character" while knowing of the sexual abuse occurring. According to court documents, the lawsuit claims that the diocese had a practice of moving perpetrating priests around to avoid penalties and sending priests who had abused children to the Servants of the Paraclete or other treatment facilities for perpetrating and sexually deviant priests before returning them to ministry.

The lawsuit recounts alleged abuse of children as young as 5 years old at churches in Springfield, Kimberling City, Poplar Bluff, Malden, Neosho, Advance, Joplin and Carthage.

According to lawsuit documents, plaintiffs' accounts of abuse include clergy members kissing, fondling, sodomizing, raping and forcing children to have sex with each other. In some instances, children allegedly were given wine before being abused.

https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/l...277432007/

[Fake Messiah]

US Catholic diocese agrees to pay $323m to child sexual abuse survivors

A Roman Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York, announced a new bankruptcy settlement on Thursday that would pay more than $323m to about 530 sex abuse survivors who alleged they were abused by priests when they were children.

The diocese of Rockville Centre, which serves about 1.2 million Catholics in Nassau and Suffolk counties, said earlier this year that it did not think a bankruptcy settlement would be possible after abuse survivors rejected the diocese’s previous $200m settlement offer.

Thursday’s settlement could provide a new path forward for dozens of Catholic dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy to address sex abuse claims.

For instance, the archdiocese of New Orleans recently proposed that it and its affiliates settle the bankruptcy it filed in May 2020 for just $62.5m, with its insurers contributing nothing. About 500 abuse claimants in that case have counter-proposed that the church and its affiliates settle for about $217m, with insurers then contributing roughly another $800m.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...lle-centre

[Fake Messiah]

Belgian PM demands 'concrete steps' over Catholic sex abuse

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Friday criticized Pope Francis for the Catholic Church's history of sex abuse and cover-ups as the pontiff began a three-day visit to the country.

De Croo demanded "concrete steps" from the Catholic Church over coming clean with the past and put victims' interests ahead those within the institution.

The speech by De Croo was one of the most pointed ever directed at the Pope during a foreign trip, where the genteel dictates of diplomatic protocol usually keeps expressions of outrage out of public discourse.

King Philippe also had strong words for Francis, demanding the Church work "incessantly" to atone for the crimes.

The scandal is particularly raw in Belgium, where two decades of revelations of abuse and systematic cover-ups have damaged the Church's credibility.

A four-episode Flemish language documentary, "Godvergeten" (Godforsaken) aired last year on public broadcaster VRT, bringing fresh momentum to the longstanding and well documented history of abuse and prompting many new victims to come forward.

https://www.dw.com/en/belgian-pm-demands...a-70343039

[Fake Messiah]

Facing more clergy abuse lawsuits, Vermont's Catholic Church files for bankruptcy

Vermont’s Catholic church has filed for bankruptcy protection as it faces more than 30 lawsuits alleging child sex abuse by clergy decades ago, according to a filing in federal bankruptcy court.

Since 2006, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, the state's only diocese, has settled 67 lawsuits for a total of $34 million, Bishop John McDermott said in the court filing on Monday.

Celeste Laramie, an attorney representing about a third of the plaintiffs in the lawsuits, said the filing "is more reflective of moral bankruptcy than actual financial bankruptcy, particularly in light of the estimated $500 million of assets it has attempted to hide from survivors of its sexual abuse.”

“For decades the Burlington Diocese covered up horrific sexual abuse of generations of Vermont’s children by sexual predators it employed as priests,” Laramie said in a statement on Tuesday. "Rather than atoning for its sins in the wave of lawsuits filed since 2019, the Burlington Diocese has instead spent well over a million dollars in the last five years alone on lawyers in an effort to avoid judgments and responsibility—all while continuing to solicit weekly donations from its parishioners.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/faci...-114394007

[Fake Messiah]

No wonder Kamala didn't come to his dinner

Cardinal Dolan says archdiocese is suing insurer to force it to pay sex abuse claims

New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan this week said the archdiocese’s longtime insurer is “attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation” to pay out financial claims to sex abuse victims, with the archdiocese launching a lawsuit against the insurer in response.

The prelate said in a letter to the faithful on Tuesday that the archdiocese has already settled more than 500 claims of sex abuse “not covered by insurance.” Yet there remain around 1,400 unresolved abuse allegations, Dolan said.

“It has always been our wish to expeditiously settle all meritorious claims,” the archbishop said. “However, Chubb, for decades our primary insurance company, even though we have paid them over $2 billion in premiums by today’s standards, is now attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors.”

He argued that Chubb “scurrilously” claims that the abuse of victims was “expected or intended” by the Catholic Church, meaning settlements stemming from that abuse cannot be covered by insurance.

Dolan called that argument “false” and “outrageous” and said the insurer is merely trying “to protect their bottom line.”

In a statement to CNA on Tuesday morning the company argued that the archdiocese “tolerated, concealed, and covered up rampant child sexual abuse for decades, and despite having substantial financial resources, they still refuse to compensate their victims.”

“Instead, the archdiocese is attempting to shift responsibility for its actions onto insurers but won’t turn over information regarding what it knew about the abuse,” the company said, alleging further that the archdiocese has “concealed their vast wealth and hidden assets.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/...use-claims