3 schools cancel football games against Ohio Catholic school after alleged sexual assaults
Multiple schools have made the decision to cancel games against Ursuline High School after two separate lawsuits were filed alleging abuse by some of its football players and a lack of concern by its coaches.
he alleged victim was subjected to an "initiation" ritual by several players who pulled him from a closet in his hotel room and threw him onto a bed, where one player allegedly assaulted him. Another player is accused of filming the incident and sharing the video on the team's Snapchat group.
The lawsuit claims that the victim was ridiculed about the assault the following day in the presence of Reardon and both assistant coaches. A player allegedly told the victim he was "going to get his butt took."
Text and social media messages included in the lawsuit purportedly show students planning and bragging about the assaults. The filing details a call between the victim's mother and assistant coach Chris McGlynn, in which McGlynn allegedly expressed neither surprise nor dismay about the hazing, describing the incidents as "just boys being boys."
After police were notified, the school began an investigation. However, the coaches allegedly instructed players not to discuss the incidents, and administrators were accused of doing little to investigate and deleting the team's social media accounts, WKYC reported.
WFMJ reported that several other alleged victims and/or witnesses have come forward after the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday.
https://local12.com/news/nation-world/ur...nt-st-mary
'Predatory paedophile' priest jailed for offences against schoolboys
Canon Patrick McEntee, 71, from Esker Road in Dromore, County Tyrone, was described by the judge at Dungannon Crown Court as a "predatory paedophile" who abused children in his care.
McEntee, who was a teacher at St Michael's College in Enniskillen, took the boys into his private quarters where some of them were made to sit on his knee or touched inappropriately.
Judge Sherrard told the court the priest presented himself to those he was not abusing as a caring Christian man, but was in fact assaulting children who were in his care.
Sentencing McEntee, Judge Sherrard said the priest had shown a complete lack of remorse and that it had taken courage for his victims to come forward.
He said the abuse had left an indelible mark on the victims and had deeply affected their lives and education.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3w5118z9xpo.amp
Florida police charge Assemblies of God pastor with failing to report child sex abuse
Mark Vega, 55, senior pastor of Ignite Life Center church in Gainesville and a former chaplain for the New York Yankees, “intentionally endeavored” to prevent reports of sex abuse at his church from reaching police, according to an Aug. 20 complaint filed in Alachua County Circuit Court. Under Florida law, any person with knowledge of child abuse is required to report to authorities; failure to do so is a felony.
Since 2023, three youth leaders from Ignite, including Vega’s son, have been charged with sexually abusing minors during church activities. Meanwhile, the families of six alleged victims have filed lawsuits accusing Ignite and the Florida Multicultural District — a regional Assemblies of God body that oversees church affairs in the state — of negligence in failing to protect children from being molested.
Vega received reports of abuse starting in 2019, according to the criminal complaint, but witnesses told investigators he repeatedly sought to handle the allegations internally rather than notify police, allowing more students to be harmed. In 2022, after Vega’s adult son and another man were accused of coercing underage girls to have sex with them, Vega met with the family of an alleged victim and came up with a plan to avoid taking the matter to police, the complaint said.
Jessica Arbour, a lawyer representing five alleged victims, said Vega and other church leaders engaged in a “pattern and practice of ignoring, and in some cases actively covering up,” evidence of abuse.
“Child sexual abuse happens not just because of abusers, but also because of systemic failures that make the abusers feel that it is safe to abuse kids,” Arbour said in a statement. “My clients are encouraged to see that law enforcement is taking their allegations seriously.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/flo...rcna229795
Pastor convicted of sexually assaulting girls in OC, Riverside
A Santa Ana pastor was convicted Monday of sexually assaulting three girls he met through churches in Riverside, Garden Grove and Santa Ana.
Carlos Ramirez Valdez, 61, was arrested in 2021. He was convicted of seven counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor younger than 14 and three counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 or younger, all felonies. Jurors also found true a sentencing enhancement for multiple victims.
At that church he lured an 8-year-old girl into a van during a service and sexually assaulted her, police said. Valdez repeatedly assaulted the girl in the van over a period of three years, police said.
The girl told investigators she was molested in second through fifth grade, with the first attack happening when the defendant took her to a van in a parking lot of the church, police said in testimony at his preliminary hearing.
Valdez also molested the girl in his home in Riverside where he showed her an adult film, police said. He would lure her into the van saying he needed to comb her hair or required help with something and then touch the victim, police said.
Another girl said the defendant began molesting her at age 9 when he was a deacon at a church, police said.
https://www.ocregister.com/2025/09/08/pa...riverside/
Multiple schools have made the decision to cancel games against Ursuline High School after two separate lawsuits were filed alleging abuse by some of its football players and a lack of concern by its coaches.
he alleged victim was subjected to an "initiation" ritual by several players who pulled him from a closet in his hotel room and threw him onto a bed, where one player allegedly assaulted him. Another player is accused of filming the incident and sharing the video on the team's Snapchat group.
The lawsuit claims that the victim was ridiculed about the assault the following day in the presence of Reardon and both assistant coaches. A player allegedly told the victim he was "going to get his butt took."
Text and social media messages included in the lawsuit purportedly show students planning and bragging about the assaults. The filing details a call between the victim's mother and assistant coach Chris McGlynn, in which McGlynn allegedly expressed neither surprise nor dismay about the hazing, describing the incidents as "just boys being boys."
After police were notified, the school began an investigation. However, the coaches allegedly instructed players not to discuss the incidents, and administrators were accused of doing little to investigate and deleting the team's social media accounts, WKYC reported.
WFMJ reported that several other alleged victims and/or witnesses have come forward after the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday.
https://local12.com/news/nation-world/ur...nt-st-mary
'Predatory paedophile' priest jailed for offences against schoolboys
Canon Patrick McEntee, 71, from Esker Road in Dromore, County Tyrone, was described by the judge at Dungannon Crown Court as a "predatory paedophile" who abused children in his care.
McEntee, who was a teacher at St Michael's College in Enniskillen, took the boys into his private quarters where some of them were made to sit on his knee or touched inappropriately.
Judge Sherrard told the court the priest presented himself to those he was not abusing as a caring Christian man, but was in fact assaulting children who were in his care.
Sentencing McEntee, Judge Sherrard said the priest had shown a complete lack of remorse and that it had taken courage for his victims to come forward.
He said the abuse had left an indelible mark on the victims and had deeply affected their lives and education.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3w5118z9xpo.amp
Florida police charge Assemblies of God pastor with failing to report child sex abuse
Mark Vega, 55, senior pastor of Ignite Life Center church in Gainesville and a former chaplain for the New York Yankees, “intentionally endeavored” to prevent reports of sex abuse at his church from reaching police, according to an Aug. 20 complaint filed in Alachua County Circuit Court. Under Florida law, any person with knowledge of child abuse is required to report to authorities; failure to do so is a felony.
Since 2023, three youth leaders from Ignite, including Vega’s son, have been charged with sexually abusing minors during church activities. Meanwhile, the families of six alleged victims have filed lawsuits accusing Ignite and the Florida Multicultural District — a regional Assemblies of God body that oversees church affairs in the state — of negligence in failing to protect children from being molested.
Vega received reports of abuse starting in 2019, according to the criminal complaint, but witnesses told investigators he repeatedly sought to handle the allegations internally rather than notify police, allowing more students to be harmed. In 2022, after Vega’s adult son and another man were accused of coercing underage girls to have sex with them, Vega met with the family of an alleged victim and came up with a plan to avoid taking the matter to police, the complaint said.
Jessica Arbour, a lawyer representing five alleged victims, said Vega and other church leaders engaged in a “pattern and practice of ignoring, and in some cases actively covering up,” evidence of abuse.
“Child sexual abuse happens not just because of abusers, but also because of systemic failures that make the abusers feel that it is safe to abuse kids,” Arbour said in a statement. “My clients are encouraged to see that law enforcement is taking their allegations seriously.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/flo...rcna229795
Pastor convicted of sexually assaulting girls in OC, Riverside
A Santa Ana pastor was convicted Monday of sexually assaulting three girls he met through churches in Riverside, Garden Grove and Santa Ana.
Carlos Ramirez Valdez, 61, was arrested in 2021. He was convicted of seven counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor younger than 14 and three counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 or younger, all felonies. Jurors also found true a sentencing enhancement for multiple victims.
At that church he lured an 8-year-old girl into a van during a service and sexually assaulted her, police said. Valdez repeatedly assaulted the girl in the van over a period of three years, police said.
The girl told investigators she was molested in second through fifth grade, with the first attack happening when the defendant took her to a van in a parking lot of the church, police said in testimony at his preliminary hearing.
Valdez also molested the girl in his home in Riverside where he showed her an adult film, police said. He would lure her into the van saying he needed to comb her hair or required help with something and then touch the victim, police said.
Another girl said the defendant began molesting her at age 9 when he was a deacon at a church, police said.
https://www.ocregister.com/2025/09/08/pa...riverside/
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"
