‘Inhumane’: Catholic priest faces possible life sentence for ‘forcing’ multiple children into commercial sex trafficking
A federal jury on Friday found Rev. Michael Jude Zacharias guilty of one count of sexual trafficking of a minor, two counts of sexual trafficking of a minor by force, fraud, or coercion, and two counts of sexual trafficking of an adult by force, fraud, or coercion.
Zacharias groomed the children for commercial sex acts “using his position as a priest and teacher to ingratiate himself with the boys and their families as a trusted friend, mentor and spiritual counselor,” prosecutors wrote. He was able to overcome the victims’ resistance to his eventual commercial sex overtures by “gradually sexualizing conversations and conduct with them.”
While Zacharias was “sexualizing” the youths, the victims were simultaneously developing addictions to opioids which later turned into heroin addictions. Knowing the victims were all heavy drug abusers, Zacharias waited until they had nearly reached rock bottom before he began to propose the idea of them performing commercial sex acts, prosecutors said.
https://lawandcrime.com/crime/inhumane-c...afficking/
Woman who survived paedophile priest's church abuse ring says nun MURDERED trying to help
Teresa Lancaster, 69, was one of the 600 children abused within the Baltimore Catholic Church, and spoke out after a 456-page report released by the Maryland Office of the Attorney highlighted decades of abuse ranging from the 1940s through until 2002.
According to the report, the heinous abuse took place at Archbishop Keough High School in Maryland as hundreds of kids, including Teresa, were forced into the Archdiocese of Baltimore's "sex ring."
Teresa went to a counsellor to get some advice when she claims she was allegedly abused by Catholic priest Father Joseph Maskel.
She told The Sun: "When I went in there, he closed the door and took all my clothes off, and sat me in his lap within five or 10 minutes."
The priest had always denied the accusations up until his death in 2001 and was never criminally charged.
Meanwhile, another girl Jean Hardadon Wehner claimed she had been abused by Mr Maskell and confided in Sister Catherine 'Cathy' Cesnik, a 26-year-old nun and English teacher at the school.
She claims the nun told her she would take care of it but "then next thing we know she was murdered", according to Mr Wehner.
Sister Cathy disappeared in November 1969 and was found dead two months later in January 1970.
Following an autopsy, she was found to have been killed by blunt force trauma to the back of her head.
The report claimed either a brick or a hammer which was the size of a quarter had been created in her skull along with strangulation marks on her neck.
The report, which was released last month, stated: "Over hundred priests and other Archdiocese personnel engaged in horrific and repeated abuse of the most vulnerable children in their communities while Archdiocese leadership looked the other way."
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/wo...s-29985044
A federal jury on Friday found Rev. Michael Jude Zacharias guilty of one count of sexual trafficking of a minor, two counts of sexual trafficking of a minor by force, fraud, or coercion, and two counts of sexual trafficking of an adult by force, fraud, or coercion.
Zacharias groomed the children for commercial sex acts “using his position as a priest and teacher to ingratiate himself with the boys and their families as a trusted friend, mentor and spiritual counselor,” prosecutors wrote. He was able to overcome the victims’ resistance to his eventual commercial sex overtures by “gradually sexualizing conversations and conduct with them.”
While Zacharias was “sexualizing” the youths, the victims were simultaneously developing addictions to opioids which later turned into heroin addictions. Knowing the victims were all heavy drug abusers, Zacharias waited until they had nearly reached rock bottom before he began to propose the idea of them performing commercial sex acts, prosecutors said.
https://lawandcrime.com/crime/inhumane-c...afficking/
Woman who survived paedophile priest's church abuse ring says nun MURDERED trying to help
Teresa Lancaster, 69, was one of the 600 children abused within the Baltimore Catholic Church, and spoke out after a 456-page report released by the Maryland Office of the Attorney highlighted decades of abuse ranging from the 1940s through until 2002.
According to the report, the heinous abuse took place at Archbishop Keough High School in Maryland as hundreds of kids, including Teresa, were forced into the Archdiocese of Baltimore's "sex ring."
Teresa went to a counsellor to get some advice when she claims she was allegedly abused by Catholic priest Father Joseph Maskel.
She told The Sun: "When I went in there, he closed the door and took all my clothes off, and sat me in his lap within five or 10 minutes."
The priest had always denied the accusations up until his death in 2001 and was never criminally charged.
Meanwhile, another girl Jean Hardadon Wehner claimed she had been abused by Mr Maskell and confided in Sister Catherine 'Cathy' Cesnik, a 26-year-old nun and English teacher at the school.
She claims the nun told her she would take care of it but "then next thing we know she was murdered", according to Mr Wehner.
Sister Cathy disappeared in November 1969 and was found dead two months later in January 1970.
Following an autopsy, she was found to have been killed by blunt force trauma to the back of her head.
The report claimed either a brick or a hammer which was the size of a quarter had been created in her skull along with strangulation marks on her neck.
The report, which was released last month, stated: "Over hundred priests and other Archdiocese personnel engaged in horrific and repeated abuse of the most vulnerable children in their communities while Archdiocese leadership looked the other way."
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/wo...s-29985044
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"
