Ryan Clemens, 41, an assistant principal of St. Patrick Interparish School, was arrested on charges of child neglect and tampering with evidence. Clemens had reportedly received a report of inappropriate behavior by the school's PE teacher, Christopher Chell, toward a female student.  Clemens held a closed-door meeting between himself, the victim, and Chell, police said.  The investigation revealed that Clemens sided with Chells and disregarded the victim's report.  The assistant principal closed the incident, but days later reported it to the Florida Department of Child and Families (DCF) - minimizing it, police said.  Days later, a teacher...

The connection  between the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic parishes and schools in the Diocese of Honolulu officially came to an end Jan 1. The decision was made at the start of 2023 when Bishop Larry Silva announced the diocese would be parting ways with the Boy Scouts of America on the first day of the year 2024 due to sexual abuse allegations. In a letter released on Jan. 31, 2023, the bishop wrote, “Unfortunately, given the liability issues and our dissatisfaction with the BSA’s cooperation on the issue, we will no longer allow parishes and...

Walter Denton wanted to grow up to be just like Father Tony Apuron, until the night he says the parish priest raped him in a church rectory. The pastor sent the sobbing 13-year-old altar boy away with a warning: “If you say anything to anybody, no one will believe you.” Denton told his mother, but says she accused him of making it up. He told another priest, but that man did nothing and later turned out to be an abuser himself. And Denton watched helplessly as Pope John Paul II named his alleged rapist Archbishop of Agaña, the voice...

Luis Jesus Barajas, 76, a former priest accused of “inappropriately touching” a 15-year-old Westlake girl sick with cancer while giving her a blessing, was indicted on six counts of gross sexual imposition by a grand jury. Witnesses told police Barajas used blankets and clothing to to hide his actions and his movements during the blessing were “unconventional.” Another Catholic priest learned of the incident and reported it to police on Oct. 20. Barajas was accused of sexual misconduct involving juveniles in the Diocese of Harrisburg, PA around 1989 and sent back to Columbia, said Westlake police.

Lawmakers around the United States have tried to grant justice to victims of decades-old incidents of child sexual abuse by giving them extra time to file lawsuits. Now some of the defendants in these cases, including church and youth organizations, are finding a safe haven: America’s bankruptcy courts.

The Catholic Diocese of Madison is pulling the plug on its support of the Boy Scouts of America at the end of next year. The Diocese of Madison covers Columbia, Dane, Grant, Green, Green Lake, Iowa, Jefferson, Lafayette, Marquette, Rock, and Sauk counties in south- central Wisconsin. Kris Kranenburg, the director of communications for the diocese, told The Gazette Monday that the decision, effective Dec. 31, 2024, was tied to the Boy Scouts of America’s ongoing bankruptcy process.

“The 2017 Netflix documentary “The Keepers” probed both cases and also delved into allegations of horrific sexual abuse at the now-shuttered all-girls Catholic high school.” The Keough alumni say that the priests, who have both since died, targeted vulnerable girls based on their disclosures in the confessional, then brought them into their private offices for supposed counseling sessions, in which they actually drugged, sexually assaulted and raped them. According to the Maryland Office of the Attorney General’s massive report on the sexual abuse of minors in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, 39 women and men have accused Maskell of sexual...

“We want church officials in Peoria to publicize these names,” St. Louis resident David Clohessy, a representative of SNAP

From Australian country towns to schools in Ireland and cities across the US, the Catholic Church has faced an avalanche of child sexual abuse accusations in the last few decades.

Last month, the attorney general of Illinois released the results of a years-long investigation into child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, revealing 348 more abusers in the state than the church had previously disclosed — and nearly 2,000 child victims.