Religion

CTV News reports: A Saskatoon priest has been placed on administrative leave following sexual assault allegations involving a minor. Police arrested a 69-year-old man on Wednesday and charged him with sexual assault following a complaint by the mother of a 13-year-old girl. In a statement shared on social media, the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon said that one of its …

Virginia Beach’s NBC affiliate reports: A former Norfolk church youth group leader was sentenced to seven years in prison for the sexual abuse of a minor. Charles Willoughby III, 39 was convicted to seven years in prison for traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. Willoughby routinely groomed minor teen girls who were part …

The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports: A Sarasota pastor was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday after he was arrested in July 2019 when the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office received a report that he’d sexually abused a 6-year-old child, according to a news release in the case. Twelfth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Ed Brodsky announced Bicente Velasquez Morales, 47, was convicted …

Nashville’s CBS affiliate reports: A now former pastor of a Williamson County church has been arrested for using the church’s internet to upload child sex abuse material. 50-year-old Daryl Hayes was indicted on six charges of sexual exploitation of a minor by a Williamson County grand jury. The investigation began after a tip from the National Center for Missing and …

Oregon Live reports: Six men were arrested this week in a child-predator sting, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Friday. At least two of the men worked in settings with children, the sheriff’s office said. In an undercover mission, detectives posed as underage boys and girls on dating apps and social media, according to the sheriff’s office. People messaged the …

The watchdog site Church Leaders reports: Jesse Joshua Aceves, who founded the Christian clothing brand The Way and had been active in the Christian hip-hop music scene, was convicted last month of “numerous” charges of child molestation. The 36-year-old, who was arrested in California back in 2020, has been sentenced to 35 years in a state prison. According to police …

Oklahoma City’s NBC affiliate reports: Wewoka Middle School principal and youth pastor, Cody Barlow was formally charged with two felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child under the age of 16 on Thursday. Barlow has been the WMS Principal since the 2019-2020 school year. A federal lawsuit filed on November 30 reveals graphic allegations of Barlow’s “grooming …

The Des Moines Register reports: A Dowling Catholic High School teacher has been arrested for an alleged sexual relationship with a student. Police arrested Kristen Gantt, 36, on Friday on two counts of sexual exploitation by a school employee. Authorities allege Gantt, who was employed as an English teacher at Dowling in West Des Moines, engaged in an inappropriate sexual …

Jacksonville’s NBC affiliate reports: A Putnam County youth pastor was arrested and faces charges of possessing child porn, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. Ed Wilds III, 45, is a youth pastor at Palatka Baptist Temple Church and a Middleton-Burney Elementary School teacher. Wilds’ father is the main pastor of the church and declined to comment on his son’s …

Colorado Springs’ NBC affiliate reports: A Colorado Springs man has been arrested on sexual assault charges according to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and detectives are looking for more victims. According to deputies with the SVU unit of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office 58-year-old Robert Henry Gordon was arrested on Wednesday, on charges of sexual assault on a …

Salt Lake City’s ABC affiliate reports: The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s priest-penitent privilege law exempts The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from revealing information from a confidential spiritual confession. The decision upheld a Dec. 15 ruling by the Arizona Court of Appeals, which also had ruled in favor of the church in a lawsuit …

The Cache Valley Daily reports: A former local leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is facing criminal charges for allegedly sexting with a teenage girl in his congregation. Cortney Ted Andrew, a 38-year-old Trenton man is facing four counts of enticing a minor by internet or text, a second-degree felony. Cache County Sheriff’s Lt. Doyle Peck …

Las Vegas’s CBS affiliate reports: A North Las Vegas pastor and his wife have been indicted by the Clark County Grand Jury accused of sexual assault and child abuse on or between 2012, and 2014, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday. Bobby Cornealius Smith, a pastor at New Beginnings Church in Las Vegas, was accused of sexually …

Savannah’s ABC affiliate reports: A former Savannah pastor will serve 25 years in prison and life on probation for child molestation and statutory rape. Alfonza McClendon Sr. was convicted of molesting two children between 2013 and 2017. The molestation happened while McClendon was pastor of the First Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church. He will have to register as a sex offender …

Via press release from the Archbishop of Baltimore: Today’s report from the Maryland Attorney General is first and foremost a sad and painful reminder of the tremendous harm caused to innocent children and young people by some ministers of the Church. The detailed accounts of abuse are shocking and soul searing. It is difficult for most to imagine that such …

Baltimore’s CBS affiliate reports: The Maryland Attorney General (AG) released a redacted report on child sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore Wednesday afternoon, detailing abuse within the church based on documents dating back to the 1940s. “The incontrovertible history uncovered by this investigation is one of pervasive and persistent abuse by priests and other Archdiocese personnel. It is also …

The Modesto Bee reports: A Modesto man who has served in a leadership role over student ministries at his church has been charged with molesting a family member. Michael Sasser, 40, was charged last month with forcible sexual penetration, continual sexual abuse of a child and lewd and lascivious acts with a child. According to the criminal complaint, the first …

The Miami New Times reports: On the evening of March 15, FBI agents smashed open the door to the home of Michael Dolce, a West Palm Beach lawyer who had advocated for and represented sexual abuse survivors for the past 20 years. Armed with three warrants, the agents did not have to search long to find what they were looking …

Reuters reports: Pope Francis left hospital and returned to the Vatican on Saturday after being treated for bronchitis, making light of his illness by saying: “I’m still alive you know”. The pope, 86, was taken to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Wednesday after complaining of breathing difficulties, but responded rapidly to an infusion of antibiotics, his medical team has said. Looking …

The Roys Report reports: A former student union president at a prominent Christian Bible school in Alberta, Canada, has been arrested and charged with sexual assault of multiple minors, after a two-year investigation. Derek Taplin, 43, allegedly abused four underage victims while he was student union president at Prairie Bible Institute, now Prairie College, in Three Hills, Alberta, from 2002 …