How A SoCal Priest Preyed On Two Brothers And Destroyed An Immigrant Family

As federal prosecutors begin a first-ever investigation into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Pennsylvania, there's pressure mounting in Southern California to dig deeper into the local church's handling of abusive clergy. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice sent subpoenas to several Pennsylvania dioceses, requesting internal church documents. The federal probe comes months after a state grand jury report detailed credible allegations by more than 1,000 victims against over 300 priests.

http://www.laist.com/2018/10/26/survivor_of_catholic_churchs_child_sex_abuse_scandal_calls_for_accountability_in_la.php 

Woman shares stories of horrific abuse at Vermont orphanage

News has an exclusive interview with an elderly woman 70 years after she left St. Joseph's Orphanage in Burlington, where she claims nuns physically and mentally abused her and other children. Burlington's Roman Catholic Diocese is waiving all nondisclosure agreements signed with the church, opening the door for victims to come forward with their stories. Bishop Christopher Coyne says the decision comes as authorities investigate allegations of abuse-- and even murder-- at the now-shuttered orphanage.

https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Woman-shares-stories-of-horrific-abuse-at-Vermont-orphanage-498584101.html 

Quarriers Village orphanage ‘like children’s prison’

A former orphanage resident has told how children were not aware of the world’s beauty because they were prisoners of an authoritarian system that let them down. The witness said that children who stayed at Quarriers Village in Renfrewshire had been left living as “charity cases”. She also claimed that records from her time at the establishment, where she lived from the late 1950s until the late 1960s, had been hidden from her by Quarriers.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/quarriers-village-orphanage-like-children-s-prison-czxjqr9gr 

Being Catholic among the chaos

It seems to me that an obvious question would be, if one was outside looking in on this awful and seemingly endless reporting of scandal within the Catholic Church in Vermont, and other parts of the world: So, what is it like being Catholic in all this chaos? Just when one thought that the awakening that started with the Boston revelations of sexual abuse of children by clergy years ago with it's shocking investigations, indictments and confessions were behind us; just when system-wide changes in education, updated safeguards and transparency have been taking hold; the horrific stories emerge from the shocking scandals in Pennsylvania.

https://www.benningtonbanner.com/stories/being-catholic-among-the-chaos,554539 

Wave of state attorneys general take on Catholic Church sex abuse

The Attorney General of Virginia Mark Herring announced Wednesday that his office was launching an "ongoing investigation" into possible sexual abuse and coverups by the Catholic dioceses in the state, the Washington Post reports. The big picture: Herring is not alone. Since the Pennsylvania grand jury's bombshell August report of egregious child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic priests, several other allegations of sexual abuse and ignorance on behalf of the Church have come to light. As a result, several other state investigations have followed.

https://www.axios.com/wave-of-state-attorneys-general-take-on-catholic-church-sex-abuse-2be8c5a7-83d0-4f9a-bed6-968789e43a44.html 

Preserve child sex abuse files, U.S. tells Catholics

The Justice Department has sent a sweeping request to every Roman Catholic diocese in the United States not to destroy documents related to the handling of child sexual abuse, a sign that the federal investigation into the church could grow far more extensive. Catholic bishops have been asked by the federal government to retain their files on a broad array of internal matters, including sexual abuse investigations, and the transfer of priests across state or international borders, or to treatment centers. The request includes documents contained in "secret archives" -- the confidential files that are kept by each diocese.

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2018/oct/28/preserve-child-sex-abuse-files-u-s-tell/ 

How Curious: A Haunted Children's Home?

One night when Caleb Germany was in high school, he and some friends drove from Oklahoma City to Guthrie to see an abandoned building they had heard was a haunted orphanage. Germany asked How Curious: What’s the history of the building? Is it haunted? When Germany visited the building for the first time with five or six friends, he said it was huge, dilapidated and illuminated by one eerie yellow light that made every shadow seem menacing.

http://www.kgou.org/post/how-curious-haunted-childrens-home 

The MeToo of the Catholic Church - time to speak is now

According to Google Maps, St. Joseph-St. Thomas parish is a five-minute drive, via Amboy Road, from Our Lady Star of the Sea, where all four of my children were baptized. Tack on three minutes if you want to travel via Father Drumgoole Road, named for the Longford-born priest best known for housing and educating thousands of destitute Irish and other immigrant children on the once-rural South Shore of Staten Island.

https://www.irishcentral.com/news/irishvoice/metoo-catholic-church-abuse

Erie nuns knew about abusive sister decades ago

Original actions taken against the late Sr. Mary Carmel Skeabeck “appear to be insufficient by today’s standards,” according to Sisters of St. Joseph. Skeabeck was added to diocese’s list of accused on Monday. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Northwestern Pennsylvania started investigating child sexual-abuse allegations against one of its deceased members in May. A complaint from an abuse victim triggered the probe.

http://www.goerie.com/news/20181030/erie-nuns-knew-about-abusive-sister-decades-ago 

Scottish inquiry: Children endured abuse at sister-run orphanages

As scandals over sexual abuse and bullying in the Catholic Church spread globally in recent years, women religious orders seemed to have been spared the worst accusations. Yet the tidy image was jolted this October, when a congregation of nuns in Scotland faced charges in an official report of showing "no love, no compassion, no dignity and no comfort" to children in its care. "Catholics in Scotland are as horrified as anyone else, and I know from my own reporting experience how this hurts morale," said Daniel Harkins, editor of the Scottish Catholic Observer, Scotland's national Catholic newspaper.

https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/trends/scottish-inquiry-children-endured-abuse-sister-run-orphanages-55557 

Why don't Catholic leaders express guilt about the abuse crisis?

I worried about hell a lot when I was 11 years old. My older brother once coaxed me into saying the first syllable of "helicopter" aloud. I panicked and cried hysterically for an hour, certain I was destined to suffer for eternity for uttering a blasphemy. I spent afternoons in my bedroom closet pawing glow-in-the-dark rosaries as I sought atonement for my perceived misdeeds.

https://www.chron.com/news/article/Why-don-t-Catholic-leaders-express-guilt-about-13327149.php 

ASK ELLIE: My parents won’t believe I was abused

Q: I was abused by someone in a religious sect when I was a child. I tried to tell my mom, but she didn't believe me. After finding out about sex abuse laws, I again tried telling my parents about my past abuse. But they said all of the victims are liars, which means they think I'm a liar. How can I get them to believe me? A: Sadly, if your parents are/were involved with that religious group, they’re refusing to accept that you could’ve been harmed by anyone who held their same belief system.

https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/living/ask-ellie-my-parents-wont-believe-i-was-abused-252501/