Child Victims Act: The accused

A number of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse within the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese were filed Wednesday. What follows is a list of some of the religious leaders and others who were accused of sexually abusing children: Bishop Howard Hubbard, former leader of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old parishioner at St. Mary's Church in Ballston Spa in 1990s. A lawyer for Hubbard said the accusation is false.

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Child-Victims-Act-the-accused-14304243.php 

New England dioceses join reporting system for sexual abuse

Several Roman Catholic dioceses in New England announced Wednesday that they were joining an independent system for reporting misconduct or abuse by church leaders. The system, started this year by the Diocese of Boston, was joined by the Diocese of Manchester in New Hampshire, the Diocese of Burlington in Vermont and the Diocese of Portland in Maine, as well as several dioceses in Massachusetts.

https://www.concordmonitor.com/New-England-dioceses-join-reporting-system-for-sexual-abuse-27739877 

Window opens for filing of lawsuits by childhood sexual abuse survivors

Susanne Robertson and her two sisters were orphans at St. Colman's Home in Watervliet, near Albany, where she said they were routinely abused by the nuns and other staff there. When one of the girls reported the sexual abuse to a nun at the home, she was transferred to an orphanage for mentally disabled children.

https://www.wxxinews.org/post/window-opens-filing-lawsuits-childhood-sexual-abuse-survivors 

Nuns, staff, priests sexually abused homeless kids at Catholic mission on Staten Island for decades: suit

Seven adult men and women charged in a 127-page lawsuit that they endured disturbing abuse at Mount Loretto Catholic Mission that was so brutal it left one of them brain damaged. In one instance around 1962, plaintiff Zaida Rivera said she was surrounded by a group of four or five nuns who forced her to lie down naked. They then made an older boy get on type of her and “grind and gyrate” his crotch on her privates as the nuns laughed, the suit says.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-staten-island-mission-abuse-20190814-kzgvb3utcfgyphosko5c3uc4z4-story.html 

Sisters prepare for decades-old indecent assault case

Sisters Lisa van der Merwe and Claudine Shiels are ready for the long haul after hearing that one of the two men who face decades-old indecent assault allegations will not be ready for the start of the trial in Cape Town on Thursday “I don’t know anything else, but trying to survive,” Van der Merwe said at a press briefing ahead of the case in the Wynberg Regional Court on Wednesday.

https://www.all4women.co.za/1822117/news/south-african-news/sisters-prepare-for-decades-old-indecent-assault-case 

Child Victims Act sex-abuse window sends shockwaves across Staten Island; churches, clergy, coaches, parents accused

A one-year window allowing adults who allege they were sexually abused as children to sue opened on Wednesday and sent shockwaves across Staten Island, with lawsuits being filed against Roman Catholic schools and churches, a youth athletic institution and even one man’s parents. The alleged abusers included the names of prominent borough clergy, coaches, educators and school principals.

https://www.silive.com/news/2019/08/child-victims-act-sex-abuse-window-sends-shockwaves-across-staten-island-churches-clergy-coaches-parents-accused.html

Window for Child Victims Act sex-abuse lawsuits opens Wednesday: What it means

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Attorneys are poised to file hundreds if not thousands of lawsuits beginning on Wednesday for adults on Staten Island and throughout New York who allege they were sexually abused as children. A one-year window of opportunity exists for victims of any age who were abused at any time as minors to file lawsuits against their alleged abusers and institutions that purportedly turned a blind eye to those crimes.

https://www.silive.com/news/2019/08/window-for-child-victims-act-sex-abuse-lawsuits-opens-wednesday-what-it-means.html 

Shocking, graphic suit alleges child abuse over nearly 40 years at Staten Island orphanage

A bombshell lawsuit filed against The Mission of the Immaculate Virgin at Mount Loretto alleges that multiple people endured appalling abuse, over decades, at the hands of nuns, priests and lay employees at the former orphanage. The lawsuit is one in a flurry filed as the Child Victims Act took effect Wednesday, sending shockwaves across Staten Island.

https://www.silive.com/news/2019/08/shocking-graphic-suit-alleges-child-abuse-over-nearly-40-years-at-staten-island-orphanage.html 

CVA lawsuits bring spotlight back to St. Colman's Home

Susanne Robertson was one of seven children. When their mother had a nervous breakdown in 1957, the children were sent to St. Colman’s Home, under the eyes of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There, Robertson and two of her sisters say, one nun sexually abused them, and the order’s leaders permitted other adults to sexually abuse them and failed to notify authorities of the crimes.

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/CVA-lawsuits-bring-spotlight-back-to-St-Colman-s-14308054.php 

Face facts, says LCWR official, sisters have been part of abuse scandal

Catholic sisters must face the reality that they have also been part of the sexual abuse scandal in the church, said Holy Cross Sister Sharlet Wagner. “We have all been affected by this scandal. We have listened to the trauma of survivors, and we have felt shame for the church we love and outrage over the crimes committed,” Sister Wagner said Aug. 15 during the Leadership Conference of Women Religious Assembly in Scottsdale.

http://catholicphilly.com/2019/08/news/national-news/face-facts-says-lcwr-official-sisters-have-been-part-of-abuse-scandal/ 

A Tidal Wave of Sex Abuse Lawsuits Is About to Hit New York's Catholic Churches and Boy Scouts

An unprecedented wave of lawsuits from sex abuse survivors is expected to flood New York courthouses on Wednesday, when the state hands survivors a one-time-only opportunity to sue their attackers — no matter how long ago the abuse took place. Only a handful of states have ever opened up so-called “lookback windows,” which temporarily suspend statute of limitation laws and let child sex abuse survivors, of any age, sue their abusers and the institution they represented.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywazax/a-tidal-wave-of-sex-abuse-lawsuits-is-about-to-hit-new-yorks-catholic-churches-and-boy-scouts 

One year after explosive Catholic church investigation in Pennsylvania: 300 priests, 1,000 victims, no state action

The cries for justice were deafening last August after a Pennsylvania grand jury disclosed accusations that hundreds of priests sexually abused more than 1,000 children, and that their sins were covered up by the Catholic church and others. Those cries still haven’t been answered.

https://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-opi-catholic-church-sex-abuse-grand-jury-investigation-muschick-20190809-s45l6ergwveevbj2jf5iafzqai-story.html