Tag Archives: Catholic Church

New Orleans’ NBC affiliate reports: A former New Orleans priest who pleaded guilty to rape and kidnapping has been sentenced to life in prison. Lawrence Hecker, 93, was sentenced Wednesday, just weeks after he entered his plea moments before jury selection was slated to begin in his trial He does not have the eligibility for parole. District Attorney Jason Williams …

Long Island’s ABC affiliate reports: A years-long, painful legal battle between the eighth largest diocese in the country and hundreds of alleged sex abuse victims came to an end today. Chief Judge Martin Glenn signed off on the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s bankruptcy plan which finalized the $323 million settlement to begin dolling out payments early next year. The case …

New Orleans’ NBC affiliate reports: The Archdiocese of New Orleans is one step closer to ending its bankruptcy. Attorneys for the diocese and sex abuse survivors have filed a plan that outlines ways to make sure child sex abuse never happens again. The plans appear to create additional transparency. Sealed records will also soon be public through an archive. The …

From excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Vigano: Look at your country! Your cities have become dumps filled with derelicts and criminals, drug dealers and addicts, prostitutes and robbers. Your schools are dens of indoctrination and corruption from kindergarten onwards. In your courts, criminals are acquitted and innocents are imprisoned: new ideological crimes are prosecuted, while illegality is tolerated and encouraged. In your …

The Associated Press reports: The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades, in what an attorney said was the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, it was announced Wednesday. After the announcement of the agreement in principle, Archbishop José H. Gomez [screenshot] said in …

Reuters reports: Pope Francis faced calls to overturn the Catholic Church’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender people on Saturday when he held talks with LGBTQ activists at the Vatican. The 80-minute meeting, held privately at the guesthouse where the pope lives, included a Catholic sister who works with LGBTQ people, a member of the transgender community, and a U.S. …

Patch Rockville Centre reports: The Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre (DRVC) and its parishes have announced a proposed global settlement with hundreds of sex abuse survivors, who allege they were abused as children at the DRVC’s parishes, churches, and schools, lawyers for survivors announced on Thursday. The settlement is based on DRVC’s parishes filing for a $320 million bankruptcy, and …

The Columbus Dispatch reports: The Catholic Conference of Ohio, which represents bishops from diocesan groups across the state, published a letter Thursday asking for the public to treat Haitian immigrants in Springfield with respect and dignity, warning against “unfounded gossip” and “scapegoating.” “Today, our nation is divided by partisanship and ideology, which blind us to the image of God in …

The Joplin Globe reports: Boys from Joplin and Carthage and a boy and a girl from Neosho are among 11 alleged victims of past sexual abuse by Catholic Church officials cited in a lawsuit filed last week against the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. The diocese and Bishop Edward Rice are listed as defendants in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis on Friday slammed both U.S. presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration, and he advised American Catholics to choose who they think is the “lesser evil” in the upcoming U.S. elections. “Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who …

The Daily Mail reports: Pawel ‘Paul’ Bielecki, 48, of New York City, was charged with wire and mail fraud by the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York for allegedly ‘defrauding victims by falsely representing that he was a medical doctor who runs medical clinics in Beirut, Lebanon,’ the complaint read. He allegedly transferred more than $600,000 …

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports: A man who was studying to become a Catholic priest at a Mount Washington seminary has admitted possessing multiple images and videos of children being sexually abused. Broderick Witt, a former seminarian at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology, pleaded guilty Thursday to eight counts of possessing child sexually abusive material. The images and …

The Catholic News Agency reports: A Catholic priest in Austria has confessed to producing crystal meth in his parish rectory. The case came to light after authorities arrested the 38-year-old cleric along with a 30-year-old Iraqi citizen from Vienna last week, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner. Both suspects are currently in pretrial detention. The priest, originally from Poland, …

Posted by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano: The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games is only the latest in a long series of vile attacks on God, the Catholic Religion and natural Morality by the antichristic elite that holds Western countries hostage. We had seen no less disconcerting scenes at the 2012 London Olympics, the 2016 inauguration of the Gotthard …

The Catholic News Agency reports: A priest is suing the gay dating and “hookup” app Grindr after the company reportedly failed to protect his data, leading to his resignation from a top position at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). In July 2021, Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill resigned from his post as the general secretary of the USCCB ahead of …

The Guardian reports: A popular former New Orleans-area Catholic priest who was dismissed as pastor from St. Anthony of Padua in Luling last year has been arrested and charged with illegally possessing child abuse imagery depicting unclothed children. Anthony Odiong was arrested Tuesday as he was leaving his home in Ave Maria, Florida. According to sworn statements in support of …

The National Catholic Reporter reports: Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the disgraced former papal nuncio to the United States who questioned the legitimacy of Pope Francis and the authority of the Second Vatican Council, has been found guilty of schism and excommunicated, the Vatican announced on July 5. “His public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: Anti-abortion groups launched a campaign Monday to oppose a ballot initiative that would protect abortion rights in Florida, calling the proposal “extreme” and “deceptive.” The effort is getting sizable support from the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops and two Catholic dioceses although so far they are being vastly outspent by the pro-4 side. “Amendment 4 was …

Axios reports: U.S. Catholic bishops apologized Friday for the Catholic Church’s part in fostering “a history of trauma” on Indigenous children at church-run boarding schools where priests sexually abused students. It’s an official acknowledgment of the church’s past abuse against Indigenous children as the extent of widespread abuses inflicted on Native children over many decades has come into sharper focus. …

The Daily Beast reports: Pope Francis on Sunday railed against conservative bishops in the United States who oppose his efforts to revitalize the Catholic Church. When quizzed by CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell over the issue on Sunday’s 60 Minutes, the 87-year-old provided an unexpected response. “You used an adjective, ‘conservative,’” Pope Francis said. “That is, conservative is one …