San Diego Diocese files for bankruptcy after 457 sex abuse claims
The diocese first filed for bankruptcy in 2007, ultimately reaching a $198 million settlement of 144 sex abuse lawsuits. That claims were triggered by a 2003 California law that allowed victims of childhood sex abuse to bring lawsuits long after the normal statute of limitations had expired.
In 2019, California again re-opened the statute of limitations and created a new three-year window for filing older sex abuse cases, causing 457 new claims to be filed against the San Diego Diocese, the diocese's court filings showed.
More than 60% of the newly filed claims represent abuse that allegedly occurred more than 50 years ago, the diocese said.
San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy said the bankruptcy stemmed from "the moral failure of those who directly abused children and teenagers, and the equally great moral failure of those who reassigned them or were not vigilant" in stopping the abuse.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/san-die...024-06-18/
Bolivia to investigate diary of another Jesuit child abuser
Prosecutors in Bolivia have reopened the case of a Catalan-born Jesuit priest who spoke about hundreds of child abuse cases in his diary.
The abuse happened especially in Indigenous communities between the 1990s and the early 2000s. A number of his superiors were informed of his actions and failed to take any measure, his accusers say.
The story of late Father Luis María Roma, who died in 2019 without ever being punished, was published by Spanish newspaper El Pais on June 16.
It recalled the equally monstrous case of Father Alfonso Pedrajas, another Spanish-born Jesuit who worked in Bolivia and wrote down in his diary dozens of child abuse acts he perpetrated over decades.
The article described how Roma, known as Padre Lucho, systematically abused and took pictures of hundreds of Indigenous girls – especially members of the Guaraní people – between 1994-2005, when he was a missionary in the small city of Charagua, in the southeastern part of Bolivia.
Lucho would draw girls – some of his victims were as young as eight – with several promises, including candy and Disney animated movies. He not only abused them, but also took pictures or films of them. An aide of his only known as Bladi supposedly helped him take the pictures.
In March of 2000, Lucho wrote he decided stop abusing and photographing little girls. He packed all his pictures and videos and decided not to keep living in such a permanent state of “lust and lasciviousness.” But this lasted only 76 days, El Pais said.
In 2005, the Society of Jesus transferred him to Sucre without a clear reason. There, a colleague discovered some of his pictures on his computer. Only 10 years later, when he had already left the Jesuits, that priest decided to speak about what he saw to a journalist.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americ...ild-abuser
Trump’s Spiritual Adviser Quasi-Confesses to Molesting 12-Year-Old Girl
The pastor of one of the country’s largest churches—and who Donald Trump once named as a spiritual adviser—has admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a woman who says he sexually abused her when she was just 12 years old.
On Friday, Cindy Clemishire told The Wartburg Watch, a religious watchdog blog, that Robert Morris, the pastor of Texas’ Gateway Church, asked her to come into his room when he stayed with her family for Christmas in 1982. She was 12 and he was 20 at the time. She said Morris molested her and then ordered her not to say anything about his behavior “because it will ruin everything.” The abuse continued for years before Clemishire confided in a close friend, prompting Morris’ wife to find out and Morris to step down from the ministry, according to the report.
He eventually returned to the church and founded Gateway Church in 2000, turning it into one of the country’s largest megachurches with an estimated weekly attendance of 100,000, according to the church. He serves as its senior pastor, prompting Trump to name him to a spiritual advisory board in 2016.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-spiritu...53397.html
The diocese first filed for bankruptcy in 2007, ultimately reaching a $198 million settlement of 144 sex abuse lawsuits. That claims were triggered by a 2003 California law that allowed victims of childhood sex abuse to bring lawsuits long after the normal statute of limitations had expired.
In 2019, California again re-opened the statute of limitations and created a new three-year window for filing older sex abuse cases, causing 457 new claims to be filed against the San Diego Diocese, the diocese's court filings showed.
More than 60% of the newly filed claims represent abuse that allegedly occurred more than 50 years ago, the diocese said.
San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy said the bankruptcy stemmed from "the moral failure of those who directly abused children and teenagers, and the equally great moral failure of those who reassigned them or were not vigilant" in stopping the abuse.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/san-die...024-06-18/
Bolivia to investigate diary of another Jesuit child abuser
Prosecutors in Bolivia have reopened the case of a Catalan-born Jesuit priest who spoke about hundreds of child abuse cases in his diary.
The abuse happened especially in Indigenous communities between the 1990s and the early 2000s. A number of his superiors were informed of his actions and failed to take any measure, his accusers say.
The story of late Father Luis María Roma, who died in 2019 without ever being punished, was published by Spanish newspaper El Pais on June 16.
It recalled the equally monstrous case of Father Alfonso Pedrajas, another Spanish-born Jesuit who worked in Bolivia and wrote down in his diary dozens of child abuse acts he perpetrated over decades.
The article described how Roma, known as Padre Lucho, systematically abused and took pictures of hundreds of Indigenous girls – especially members of the Guaraní people – between 1994-2005, when he was a missionary in the small city of Charagua, in the southeastern part of Bolivia.
Lucho would draw girls – some of his victims were as young as eight – with several promises, including candy and Disney animated movies. He not only abused them, but also took pictures or films of them. An aide of his only known as Bladi supposedly helped him take the pictures.
In March of 2000, Lucho wrote he decided stop abusing and photographing little girls. He packed all his pictures and videos and decided not to keep living in such a permanent state of “lust and lasciviousness.” But this lasted only 76 days, El Pais said.
In 2005, the Society of Jesus transferred him to Sucre without a clear reason. There, a colleague discovered some of his pictures on his computer. Only 10 years later, when he had already left the Jesuits, that priest decided to speak about what he saw to a journalist.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americ...ild-abuser
Trump’s Spiritual Adviser Quasi-Confesses to Molesting 12-Year-Old Girl
The pastor of one of the country’s largest churches—and who Donald Trump once named as a spiritual adviser—has admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a woman who says he sexually abused her when she was just 12 years old.
On Friday, Cindy Clemishire told The Wartburg Watch, a religious watchdog blog, that Robert Morris, the pastor of Texas’ Gateway Church, asked her to come into his room when he stayed with her family for Christmas in 1982. She was 12 and he was 20 at the time. She said Morris molested her and then ordered her not to say anything about his behavior “because it will ruin everything.” The abuse continued for years before Clemishire confided in a close friend, prompting Morris’ wife to find out and Morris to step down from the ministry, according to the report.
He eventually returned to the church and founded Gateway Church in 2000, turning it into one of the country’s largest megachurches with an estimated weekly attendance of 100,000, according to the church. He serves as its senior pastor, prompting Trump to name him to a spiritual advisory board in 2016.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-spiritu...53397.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
