BALTIMORE (AP) — More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused over 600 children and often escaped accountability, according to a long-awaited state report released Wednesday that revealed the scope of abuse spanning 80 years and accused church leaders of decades of coverups.

The report paints a damning picture of the archdiocese, which is the oldest Roman Catholic diocese in the country and spans much of Maryland. Some parishes, schools and congregations had more than one abuser at the same time — including St. Mark Parish in Catonsville, which had 11 abusers living and working there between 1964 and 2004. One deacon admitted to molesting over 100 children. Another priest was allowed to feign hepatitis treatment and make other excuses to avoid facing abuse allegations.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office released the findings of their yearslong investigation during Holy Week — considered the most sacred time of year in Christianity ahead of Easter Sunday — and said the number of victims is likely far higher. The report was redacted to protect confidential grand jury materials, meaning the identities of some accused clergy were removed.

“The staggering pervasiveness of the abuse itself underscores the culpability of the Church hierarchy,” the report said. “The sheer number of abusers and victims, the depravity of the abusers’ conduct, and the frequency with which known abusers were given the opportunity to continue preying upon children are astonishing.”

Disclosure of the redacted findings marks a significant development in an ongoing legal battle over their release and adds to growing evidence from parishes across the country as numerous similar revelations have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.

Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, in a statement posted online, apologized to the victims and said the report “details a reprehensible time in the history of this Archdiocese, a time that will not be covered up, ignored or forgotten.”

“It is difficult for most to imagine that such evil acts could have actually occurred,” Lori said. “For victim-survivors everywhere, they know the hard truth: These evil acts did occur.”

Also on Wednesday, the state legislature passed a bill to end a statute of limitations on abuse-related civil lawsuits, sending it to Gov. Wes Moore, who has said he supports it. The Baltimore archdiocese says it has paid more than $13.2 million for care and compensation for 301 abuse victims since the 1980s, including $6.8 million toward 105 voluntary settlements.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, who took office in January, said the investigation shows “pervasive, pernicious and persistent abuse.” State investigators began their work in 2019; they reviewed over 100,000 pages of documents dating back to the 1940s and interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses.

ABUSE RECALLED AS A ‘LIFE SENTENCE’

Victims said the report was a long-overdue public reckoning with shameful accusations the church has been facing for decades.

Jean Hargadon Wehner said she was abused in Baltimore as a teen by A. Joseph Maskell, a priest who served as her Catholic high school’s counselor and chaplain. She said she reported her abuse to church officials in the early ’90s, when her memories of the trauma finally surfaced about two decades after she was repeatedly raped.

“I expected them to do the right thing in 1992,” she told reporters Wednesday. “I’m still angry.”

Maskell abused at least 39 victims, according to the report. He denied the allegations before his death in 2001 and was never criminally charged. The Associated Press typically doesn’t name victims of abuse, but Wehner has spoken publicly to draw attention to the issue.

Kurt Rupprecht, who also experienced abuse as a child, said he was in his late 40s when he pieced together his traumatic memories. He said the realization brought him some relief because it explained decades of self-destructive behavior and mental health challenges, but also left him overwhelmed with anger and disbelief.

Rupprecht said his abuser was assigned to the Diocese of Wilmington, which covers some counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

“We’re here to speak the truth and never stop,” he said after the news conference. “We deal with this every day. It is our life sentence.”

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, noted the report lists more names of abusers than have been released publicly by archdiocese officials. The organization called on the archbishop to explain the discrepancies.

Other investigations involving the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, which both include parts of Maryland, are ongoing.

ARCHDIOCESE TOOK STEPS TO PROTECT THE ACCUSED

The Baltimore report says church leaders were focused on keeping abuse hidden, not on protecting victims or stopping abuse. In some situations, victims ended up reporting abuse to priests who were abusive themselves. And when law enforcement did become aware of abuse allegations, police and prosecutors were often deferential and “uninterested in probing what church leaders knew and when,” according to the report.

The nearly 500-page document includes numerous instances of leaders taking steps to protect accused clergy, including allowing them to retire with financial support rather than be ousted, letting them remain in the ministry and failing to report alleged abuse to law enforcement.

In 1964, for instance, Father Laurence Brett admitted to sexually abusing a teenager at a Catholic university in Connecticut.

He was sent to New Mexico under the guise of hepatitis treatment and then to Sacramento, where another teenage boy reported being abused by Brett, the report said. He was later assigned to Baltimore, where he served as chaplain at a Catholic high school for boys and abused over 20 victims.

After several students accused him of abuse in 1973, Brett was allowed to resign, saying he had to care for a sick aunt. School officials didn’t report the abuse to authorities and dozens more victims later came forward. He never faced criminal charges and died in 2010.

The report largely focuses on the years before 2002, when an investigation by the Boston Globe into abuse and coverup in the Archdiocese of Boston led to an explosion of revelations nationwide. The nation’s Catholic bishops, for the first time, then agreed on reforms including a lifetime ban from ministry for any priest who commits even a single incident of abuse. While new national policies significantly improved the internal handling of reported abuse in the Baltimore archdiocese after 2002, significant flaws remained, according to the report.

Only one person has been indicted through the investigation: Neil Adleberg, 74, who was arrested last year and charged with rape and other counts. The case remains ongoing. Officials said he coached wrestling at a Catholic high school in the ’70s, then returned to the role for the 2014-2015 school year. The alleged abuse occurred in 2013 and 2014 but the victim was not a student of the school, officials said.

COURT TO CONSIDER RELEASING MORE NAMES IN THE FUTURE

Lawyers for the state asked a court for permission to release the report and a Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled last month that a redacted version should be made public. The court ordered the removal the names and titles of 37 people accused of wrongdoing — whose names came out during confidential grand jury proceedings — but will consider releasing a more complete version in the future.

Lawmakers’ passage of a bill to end the state’s statute of limitations Wednesday came after similar proposals failed in recent years. Currently, victims of child sex abuse in Maryland can’t sue after they turn 38. The bill would eliminate the age limit and allow for retroactive lawsuits.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has long faced scrutiny over its handling of abuse allegations.

In 2002, Cardinal William Keeler, who served as Baltimore archbishop for nearly two decades, released a list of 57 priests accused of sexual abuse, earning himself a reputation for transparency at a time when the nationwide scope of wrongdoing remained largely unexposed. That changed, however, when a Pennsylvania grand jury accused Keeler of covering up sexual abuse allegations while serving as bishop of Harrisburg in the 1980s.

 Report details 'staggering' church sex abuse in Maryland | AP News 

NEWSBy Shelia Poole, The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionMarch 24, 2023Victim advocates critical of report, say numbers are too low

A long-awaited investigation into sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Georgia detailed historical abuse by clergy, but the review did not uncover ongoing or active allegations of sexual abuse that could be criminally pursued.

The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia report said none of those priests could be prosecuted because they are either deceased, have already been prosecuted or the statute of limitations expired before the review was launched.

Most of the victims were boys but there were also girls.

The report details allegations against priests ,members of religious orders and others, who at some point worked in the archdiocese and diocese, and the resolution.

The Church in the United States placed little focus on victims and no uniform policies for protecting children were in place prior to 2002, according to the report. Then the U.S. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted the national “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

“When allegations of abuse occurred, the common response of the church was to provide therapy to the priests” usually by sending them to various facilities ” the report said.

The Church now requires all allegation of abuse of minors be reported to state welfare officials.

Roughly 70 priests, deacons and those with religious orders whose allegations were deemed credible were detailed in the report, all but 13 named.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr in 2019 asked the state’s Morrow-based Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council to launch the investigation.

The PAC conducted the independent third-party review of records, files, documents, and reports related to suspected child abuse cases in the possession of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Diocese of Savannah.

Both the Atlanta archdiocese and the Savannah diocese cooperated with investigators.

At least one of alleged abuses go back to then1940s with one victim only 4-years-old at the time of her abuse. The only time files could not be obtained was 2020 and 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, when church facilities were not accessible, according to the PAC.

The Most Rev. Gregory J. Hartmayer., archbishop of Atlanta, called abuse by priests, religious brothers or sisters, volunteers or employees of the Catholic Church is " unacceptable. It cannot and will not be tolerated. This archdiocese will not protect abusers and we will not allow them to have access to our communities.”

While the secular investigations generally produce the most evidence, “it’s apparent this report comes up way short,” said Mike McDonnell, a spokesman for SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests).

He said it was vary hard to believe “knowing how meticulous church officials are with documentation and the number of Catholics served in both boundaries, that there are not more documented cases of abuse.”

Atlanta Atty. Darren W. Penn, who is representing several sexual abuse survivors, was critical of the report, although he was glad the issue of clergy sexual abuse was made public.

The report has an air of ‘this is all in the past and let’s put it behind us now’ feel about it. What we should be doing is recognizing the clear failures of the Archdiocese and the Church in general and putting our effort into finding solutions that will prevent this type of conduct from ever happening again.”

The 2019 probe was announced by Carr just months after the Archdiocese of Atlanta, released the names of 15 priests, seminarians, and those under direct authority of a religious order who were “credibly” accused of the abuse of minors.

The list was last updated Sept. 28 and has grown to contain about 30 names. The list goes back to the establishment of the archdiocese in 1956 and is still available on the archdiocesan website.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah also has a list on its website that contains the names of 18 people.

It includes Wayland Brown, who served in the Savannah diocese from 1977 to 1998, was later convicted and sentenced to a 20 years in South Carolina on multiple counts of criminal sexual assault with a minor and died in 2019, according to the diocese.

ExploreRead the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta's list of "credibly accused" priests, seminarians and others

The sex abuse crisis has engulfed the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and globally for decades. Molestation by priests and others in the Church was the subject of a Boston Globe newspaper investigation in 2002 that found accused priests were often moved to other churches or placed on sick leave. The report told how those accused were rarely being held accountable.

Nationally and internationally, the scandals in various archdioceses and dioceses have tested the Church.

“The credibility of the bishops who teach on matters of morality is lessened and severely damaged by their inaction when they’ve had information about clergy who are abusers and they didn’t do anything to keep that from happening again and again,” said Sandra Yocum, a professor of faith and culture at the University of Dayton. “Its impact is going to be long-term.”

ExploreThird-party looks at abuse allegations in the Atlanta Archdiocese and the Savannah Diocese

Speaking to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Yocum said she recognizes that it’s the state’s duty to investigate such allegations because there could be crimes committed.

The denomination has nearly 62 million Catholics in the nation, according to the U.S. Religion Census,

Georgia is among several probes of abuse cases in the Roman Catholic Church launched by government agencies in recent years.

ExploreDefrocked priest, Wayland Brown, dies at 76

Such probes means that there is going to be accountability that goes beyond the confines of the Church, said Yocum.

She added: “The U.S. Catholic Church will need to cooperate with state investigations for the foreseeable future,”

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta

92 parishes

9 missions

1.2 million Catholics

Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah

57 parishes

21 missions

80,000 Catholics

Nationally:

There are nearly 62 million Catholics in the U.S., much of the growth has been in the South.

*Source: 2022 Official Catholic Directory, Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah, U.S. Religion Census, which is conducted every 10 years by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies

How to report abuse:

Savannah: If you are a victim of abuse by clergy, an employee or a volunteer in the Diocese of Savannah, or if you know of anyone who has been a victim of such misconduct, please contact civil authorities and the Diocese Abuse Reporting Line at 1-888-357-5330.

Atlanta: If you know or suspect a case of sexual abuse, call the archdiocesan 24-hour Abuse Reporting Hotline at 1-888-437-0764. If allegation of abuse involves any member of the clergy, employee, or volunteer of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, you must contact the Office of the District Attorney and the Office of Child and Youth Protection in addition to DFCS within 24 hours, according to the website.

State of Georgia IS MIA for Twenty Years.  Study Released after Georgia Elections!

May 1, 2019

Catholic Diocese from Atlanta and Savannah are cooperating with the independent investigation 

 Georgia Attorney General Opens statewide Priest Abuse Investigation - YouTube 

  Lalaine Briones <LBriones@pacga.org>To:

• Dennis Horion

Cc:

• Bonnie Mansfield <bmansfield@pacga.org>

Tue 3/21/2023 12:40 PM

Mr. Horion,

As a courtesy, we wanted to inform on behalf of Mr. Cohen that the Archdiocese and Diocese report will be released later this week.

Lalaine A. Briones

Deputy Director

Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia

Address: 1590 Adamson Parkway, Fourth Floor, Morrow, Georgia 30260

Main Office: 770-282-6300

Direct: 770-282-6303

Email: lbriones@pacga.org

Website: www.pacga.org

Dec 30 (Reuters) - 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.

In New York, nearly 11,000 cases flooded state courts, many seeking to hold Catholic dioceses responsible for sexual abuse by clergy, after a 2019 law suspended statutes of limitations that would have otherwise barred many of the lawsuits. In response, four New York dioceses that collectively faced more than 500 sexual-abuse claims filed for bankruptcy. That halted the cases — and blocked those from anyone who might sue later — and forced the plaintiffs to negotiate a one-time settlement for all abuse claims in bankruptcy court.

The pattern has taken hold across the United States, a Reuters review of bankruptcies precipitated by mass child sexual-abuse litigation found.

Many of the defendants turning to bankruptcy court are nonprofit organizations. In court filings dating back to 2009, the Boy Scouts of America, a New York boys & girls club and 13 separate Catholic institutions each have cited state laws extending abuse victims’ right to sue as factors in their decisions to seek bankruptcy protection.

Such bankruptcies are “the counterpunch” to the state laws enabling more victims to seek justice and compensation through lawsuits, said Stephen Rubino, a lawyer who’s represented clergy abuse victims for more than 30 years.

In all, 23 states, two territories and Washington, D.C., have passed laws that suspend statutes of limitations for sexual-abuse victims who were previously prevented from suing over older cases. The suspensions typically last a year or more, allowing plaintiffs to file new lawsuits involving old abuse cases during that period. California, New York and several other states passed such laws in 2019.

Bankruptcy courts are undermining the impact of the statutes, some legal experts and victims’ advocates say. Judges overseeing these Chapter 11 filings set their own deadlines to file a sexual-abuse claim for compensation from the bankruptcy settlement.

Victims who miss the bankruptcy claims-filing deadline receive nothing or are forced to compete for limited funds set aside for unknown future claimants, the Reuters review of bankruptcies found.

“As we dramatically increase access to justice through statutes-of-limitations reform, we have more organizations going into bankruptcy because, frankly, bankruptcy law favors the organizations,” said Marci Hamilton, the founder of Child USA, a group that has advocated for laws expanding sexual-abuse victims’ rights to sue.

Child sexual-abuse victims often don’t come forward until much later in life, sometimes past the age of 50, according to several victims’ lawyers and studies on abuse disclosure. Some are not aware of bankruptcy proceedings that affect them until it is too late.

Bankruptcy claims-filing deadlines can force victims to come forward before they are ready, Hamilton said. And abuse claimants have limited leverage in Chapter 11 cases that halt their litigation and shield organizations such as dioceses, schools or youth organizations from current and future lawsuits, she said.

“The federal bankruptcy law is just defective when it comes to sexual-abuse victims,” Hamilton said. “Their voice is just stolen from them.”

Reuters identified settlements in 23 bankruptcies precipitated by child sexual-abuse scandals that halted current and future lawsuits and forced claimants to seek compensation from a trust. The cases involved the Boy Scouts, 21 Catholic organizations and USA Gymnastics. The youth gymnastics organization filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2018 amid a surge of lawsuits alleging abuse by convicted child sexual abuser Larry Nassar. (Now in prison, Nassar could not be reached for comment.)

The Boy Scouts and USA Gymnastics did not comment for this story.

The Boy Scouts and others have argued that their bankruptcy plans seek to pay claimants fairly and equitably, whereas civil litigation can result in some victims winning large jury verdicts and others receiving smaller judgments or nothing. USA Gymnastics has said it sought bankruptcy protection “to pave the way toward a settlement” with abuse survivors, who last year approved a plan paying them $380 million.

The organizations also often conduct extensive marketing campaigns to ensure that potential victims know they can seek compensation in the Chapter 11 cases, a review of the cases shows. The Boy Scouts, for instance, said on a website the group set up for restructuring that it launched a “comprehensive noticing campaign” in the media.

The Madison Square Boys & Girls Club in New York City referred Reuters to a bankruptcy-court declaration filed in June by its chief financial officer, Jeffrey Dold. Dold said the organization sought Chapter 11 protection after trying and failing to resolve about 140 pending claims of sexual abuse by club employees and volunteers between the 1940s and 1980s, all filed after the passage of New York’s claims-revival law. The club filed bankruptcy, Dold said, “to provide a forum to address those claims fairly and equitably.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had no comment on the new state laws or their impact nationwide on Catholic organizations facing sexual-abuse lawsuits. In a statement to Reuters, it said it defers to state and local catholic leadership organizations on state laws and bankruptcies. The conference noted the importance of “pastoral outreach” to abuse victims and said that local dioceses have victim assistance coordinators to “assist survivors and accompany them as they seek healing.”

The nonprofit organizations’ bankruptcies don’t protect the individual abusers themselves, whom victims can still sue. But they do grant lawsuit immunity to the entities that oversaw employees or volunteers accused of abuse.

Lawyers defending organizations targeted by sexual-abuse claims, along with some plaintiffs lawyers, say bankruptcy provides a fair way to compensate victims, many of whom want to avoid the ordeal of a lawsuit and a potential trial. Moreover, organizations and insurers paying the settlements won’t agree to any deal that doesn’t shield them from additional liability, said Susan Boswell, a retired lawyer who represented dioceses in bankruptcies from Arizona to Minnesota.

“If you can’t have finality,” she said, “then you are not ever going to be able to get one of these cases done.”

America’s federal bankruptcy courts play a critical role in justice and commerce by giving businesses overwhelmed by debt an orderly process to settle with creditors during a reorganization or liquidation. Those debts can include liability from lawsuits over deadly products, fraud, sexual abuse or other wrongdoing.

The power of U.S. bankruptcy courts to grant lawsuit immunity to organizations in bankruptcy, their leaders and affiliated entities has expanded over time. And so have the legal tactics of entities seeking Chapter 11 protection: Some corporations engulfed in scandals are now creating subsidiaries solely to absorb their lawsuit liability and declare bankruptcy.

Nonprofit organizations facing sexual-abuse lawsuits have pulled another page from the corporate bankruptcy playbook: In striking settlements, they typically seek “nondebtor releases” for their associated entities, such as religious schools and individual parishes. Such releases shield people and entities from lawsuits over issues taken up in bankruptcy settlements. By piggybacking on a nonprofit’s Chapter 11 filing, its affiliated organizations or leaders often get these liability shields without having to file for bankruptcy themselves.

Judges often appoint someone to advocate for the interests of potential victims who have not yet sued or made a claim in bankruptcy court. Known as future claims representatives, these appointees are often lawyers or financial professionals who are paid by the debtor and tasked with estimating the number of future claims and the funds needed to cover them. The reality, however, is that late filers often end up competing for smaller amounts than those who meet the deadline, according to court records reviewed by Reuters and attorneys involved in the proceedings. Unknown claimants become “numbers on a chart,” Rubino said.

A former Boy Scout, C, alleges a Scout leader abused him when he was a teenager. Reuters agreed to identify the former Scout, now 40, only by his first initial.

He sought compensation in the Boy Scouts bankruptcy in June, long after a deadline of November 16, 2020 for filing claims. C is now unlikely to recover much, if anything, from the $2.46 billion settlement the Boy Scouts reached with claimants alleging sexual abuse, his lawyer said. That’s because claimants who miss the deadline face a gauntlet of additional hurdles and conditions, according to C’s lawyer and a review of the Boy Scouts settlement terms.

The Boy Scouts bankruptcy reorganization plan, approved by a judge in September, halts all lawsuits against the Boy Scouts, local councils, churches and other organizations that chartered scouting activities.

The bankruptcy’s claims-filing rules take precedence over a recent law passed in California, where C says he was abused, that expanded sexual-abuse victims’ rights to sue. The bankruptcy proceedings generally trump state laws because bankruptcy courts are federal, and typically have the power to override state statutes and halt state lawsuits or court orders.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein reasoned in approving the Boy Scouts settlement that it was a better solution for victims than seeking compensation in trial courts.

Silverstein declined to comment for this story. In a July opinion approving aspects of the Scouts’ reorganization plan, she noted that insurance carriers, local Scouts councils and chartered organizations would not contribute to the settlement without receiving nondebtor releases from liability. She agreed with lawyers for the Boy Scouts and some claimants that the only alternative to a settlement was a “‘death trap’ of litigation with minimal recoveries in sight.”

“These boys–now men–seek and deserve compensation,” the judge wrote, for “abuse which has had a profound effect on their lives and for which no compensation will ever be enough.”

Beyond questions of fair compensation, C said the bankruptcy is preventing him from getting his day in court against the Boy Scouts to present what happened to him.

C grew up in an unstable home in northern California. His mother considered the Boy Scouts a safe environment for her son. For years after a Scout leader allegedly abused him and other boys, C struggled with acknowledging that what had happened to him was wrong, he told Reuters. He had trusted his Scout leader.

Within the past couple of years, he spoke at length with another former Scout about the leader’s behavior, he said. The emotional conversation prompted C to reflect on the damage in his own life stemming from the abuse. He said in an interview that his own struggles relating to others began to make more sense. C lives with his mother, sometimes sleeps in his car and has struggled to find a steady career.

“I’m waiting to stand in front of a judge,” C said, and hoping for that judge to say: “‘What happened to you was wrong.’”

‘THE PRIEST WOULD NEVER DO THAT’

Some plaintiffs’ attorneys say bankruptcy proceedings can provide a better way to compensate many sexual-abuse victims than trial courts. Victims often don’t want to go through the ordeal of suing their abusers or the organizations that may have enabled them, said Dan Lapinski, a Motley Rice LLC lawyer representing Boy Scouts claimants. For them, seeking compensation through bankruptcy can allow victims to file a claim confidentially and avoid reliving their trauma in open court.

“I have clients who fall into that category” in the Scouts matter, Lapinski said, noting that these victims might not have pursued their claim at all outside of bankruptcy court.

Financial coffers of individual dioceses are usually smaller than those of large corporations, said Boswell, the retired lawyer who has represented dioceses facing abuse allegations in bankruptcies. Expensive litigation cuts into the money available for compensation, she said, but a bankruptcy reorganization can attempt to pay all claimants equitably.

Still, there is often little left for claimants who come forward later, after bankruptcy filing deadlines pass.

In January 2020, a 59-year old former altar boy named Henry attended a church service in Minnesota on a visit back to the state to see family. After the service, Henry said, the priest spoke to parishioners about the financial impact of the 2018 bankruptcy of the local Winona-Rochester diocese, caused in part by sexual-abuse claims.

Henry knew the abuse first-hand. When he was 17, a priest assaulted Henry in a pool shower after swimming, he said in an interview. He had kept what happened to himself in part because he thought nobody would believe him, said Henry, who spoke on condition that he be identified only by his middle name.

Before clergy sexual-abuse scandals emerged worldwide, his community’s attitude was “the church would never do that, the priest would never do that,” he said. “You’re kind of squelched from the get-go.”

Finding out about the bankruptcy in church that day emboldened Henry to come forward, too, he said. Two days after the priest’s comments, he contacted a lawyer who filed a late claim on his behalf. But relatively little money — a maximum of $750,000 — had been set aside for claimants who came forward after a 2019 deadline. Henry received $20,000, which he described as “an almost laughable“ amount.

Henry could receive more money later, depending on how many additional claims are filed and how a trustee who determines payouts views his claim. But a final determination won’t be made until a deadline for filing late claims passes several years from now, according to documents Reuters reviewed. The judge in the case declined to comment.

By comparison, the settlement covering the 145 sexual-abuse claimants who filed on time was nearly $28 million. That would equate to about $190,000 per victim. The amount individual claimants might receive varies, depending on factors including the duration, severity and impact of their alleged abuse, according to court documents.

“What I don’t like is that they put some arbitrary cap on anybody who filed after” the deadline, Henry said.

Peter Martin, a spokesperson for the Winona-Rochester diocese, declined to comment on its bankruptcy proceedings. Martin did not respond to inquiries about Henry’s allegations of sexual abuse.

Statutes of limitations exist for good reason, some legal scholars say.

Historically, states enacted them to encourage plaintiffs to file timely lawsuits based on “reasonably fresh” evidence, said Marie T. Reilly, a professor at Penn State Law in University Park, Pennsylvania. Reilly argues that allowing victims to sue long after their alleged abuse threatens the integrity of the legal system in the name of exacting retribution against institutions such as Catholic dioceses.

Over time, memories deteriorate, witnesses die and documents can go missing, she said. “The ability to mount a defense deteriorates with the passage of time,” Reilly said.

New York State Senator Brad Hoylman, a Democrat, sponsored the state’s bipartisan legislation reviving child sexual-abuse claims. He told Reuters he pushed the bill because it can be especially difficult for individuals to come forward with allegations against abusers who are often “in positions of power and trust.”

For thousands of victims with revived legal rights to seek accountability from institutions in trial courts, bankruptcy filings can be crushing.

Doug Kennedy was a teenage Boy Scouts camp staffer in upstate New York when a camp director raped him repeatedly and forced him to engage in other sexual activity, according to a lawsuit he filed. His case was halted by the Boy Scouts bankruptcy. In the years after the assaults, he told Reuters, he buried his memories of the abuse.

The man Kennedy accused of abuse, Bruce DeSandre, declined to comment through his attorney. In a court filing, DeSandre denied Kennedy’s allegations of sexual abuse and argued that New York state’s revival law was unconstitutional.

When Kennedy, now a college professor, finally came to grips with his abuse, the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit had passed.

In January 2019, he retreated to his office at Virginia Wesleyan University, drew the shades and watched a streaming feed of the New York state legislature’s vote to change the law and allow victims like Kennedy to file lawsuits over abuse that occurred long ago.

“I broke down, completely broke down,” he said.

He thought he would finally get a chance to get accountability for what was allowed to happen to him. Later that year, in August, he filed his lawsuit against defendants including a Boy Scouts local council and DeSandre.

About six months later, the Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy. Kennedy said his feeling of hope drained away when he heard the news.

“Bankruptcy is not justice,” he said. “Bankruptcy is business.”

Mar 2, 2023

Despite its expectations of holiness and celibacy, the Catholic Church has been the subject of a fair share of monastic scandal. Nearly all of these scandals, however, pale in comparison to the tales of coercion and wrongdoing that haunt the history of Maria Agnese Firrao's convent. 

 The Nuns of Sant’ Ambrogio: the True Story of a Convent in Scandal | Reviews in History 

 Attorneys to sue archdiocese over child sex abuse - YouTube  Attorneys to sue archdiocese over child sex abuse - YouTube 

600 Kids Were Sexually Abused by Baltimore’s Catholic Church Over 6 Decades

600 Kids Were Sexually Abused , by Baltimore’s Catholic Church Over 6 Decades. NBC News reports that on April 5, Attorney General Anthony Brown accused Catholic Church officials in the state of attempting to cover up years of sexual abuse. Brown contends that a minimum of 600 children were victims, and some were "preyed upon by multiple abusers over decades.". 600 children are known to have been abused by the 156 people included in this Report, but the number is likely far higher, Anthony Brown, Maryland Attorney General, via statement. Time and again, members of the Church’s hierarchy resolutely refused to acknowledge allegations of child sexual abuse for as long as possible, Anthony Brown, Maryland Attorney General, via statement. When denial became impossible, Church leadership would remove abusers from the parish or school, sometimes with promises that they would have no further contact with children. , Anthony Brown, Maryland Attorney General, via statement. When denial became impossible, Church leadership would remove abusers from the parish or school, sometimes with promises that they would have no further contact with children. , Anthony Brown, Maryland Attorney General, via statement. Church documents reveal with disturbing clarity that the Archdiocese was more concerned with avoiding scandal and negative publicity than it was with protecting children, Anthony Brown, Maryland Attorney General, via statement. Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori referred to the report as 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 evil acts could have actually occurred. , William E. Lori, Baltimore Archbishop, via statement. For victim-survivors everywhere, they know the hard truth: These evil acts did occur, William E. Lori, Baltimore Archbishop, via statement 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgAoLYfc7-E&ab_channel=NBCNews

 Crump: Abuse victims set to sue Baltimore Archdiocese | AP News 

BALTIMORE (AP) — After Maryland lawmakers recently eliminated the statute of limitations for child sex abuse lawsuits amid heightened scrutiny of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, civil rights attorney Ben Crump announced plans Tuesday to bring a series of civil claims on behalf of victims.

The threat of litigation comes as the the archdiocese faces continued fallout from a state report released last month that found more than 150 priests and other clergy in the archdiocese sexually abused over 600 children with impunity. The report, which the Maryland Attorney General’s Office produced after a yearslong investigation, paints a damning picture of the nation’s oldest Catholic diocese.

Days after the report’s release, Gov. Wes Moore signed legislation to end Maryland’s statute of limitations for child sex abuse lawsuits effective Oct. 1. Previously, victims couldn’t sue after turning 38.

Crump, best known for representing victims of police brutality, held a news conference Tuesday outside the Baltimore Basilica with attorney Adam Slater, his partner on some earlier high-profile sex abuse cases. Several potential plaintiffs shared their stories of abuse; some overlapped with findings of the attorney general’s investigation while others presented new allegations.

“You cannot outrun the trauma that was inflicted, no matter how hard they tried,” Crump told reporters. “Many of them — for years, for decades — believed it was their fault.”

A spokesperson for the archdiocese didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Marc Floto, one of the potential plaintiffs, said the attorney general’s investigation inspired him to come forward and speak publicly about childhood abuse he said caused “so many problems” in his life.

“Still to this day, I have so much anger, so much hate,” he said, sobbing silently between sentences. “The church needs to be held accountable.”

Floto displayed a printed photo of himself — in suit and tie, his blonde hair neatly combed — from around the time he said the abuse occurred.

The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.

“This little boy had his innocence stolen,” Crump said.

Floto said he wasn’t interviewed for the attorney general’s investigation but his abuser, Father James Dowdy, is named in the report.

Ordained in 1969, Dowdy served in several Maryland parishes before abuse allegations surfaced in 1991, according to the report. He denied the allegations, saying it was nothing more than horseplay with boys, and apparently he faced no consequences.

Two years later, another man reported Dowdy had sexually abused him in the 1970s and ’80s. Dowdy was then placed on leave and his ministerial faculties were removed, the report says. Church officials agreed to pay the victim’s counseling and medication costs while simultaneously bankrolling Dowdy’s therapy, health care and living expenses for years. His expenses cost the church well over $100,000, more than 10 times what the victim received, according to the report. During therapy, Dowdy disclosed many more instances of abuse. Finally, in 1977, his church employment was terminated.

The Baltimore archdiocese has already paid more than $13.2 million for care and compensation for 301 abuse victims since the 1980s, including $6.8 million toward 105 voluntary settlements.

But the recent law change, including a provision making it retroactive, could allow for a deluge of additional lawsuits.

The Maryland Catholic Conference, representing the three dioceses serving the state, opposed the measure, arguing the retroactive window was unconstitutional and citing potentially devastating impacts on the Baltimore archdiocese and other institutions. Anticipating a court challenge, lawmakers included language in the bill that would further delay lawsuits until the Supreme Court of Maryland can determine whether it’s constitutional.

Several other states have passed similar legislation in recent years, and in some cases, resulting lawsuits have driven dioceses into bankruptcy.

Also present at Tuesday’s news conference, former Maryland Sen. Tim Ferguson said he was 13 or 14 when a priest asked to take him fishing for the weekend. The guest bedroom was being renovated, the priest claimed, so they would have to share his bed.

Ferguson said he froze during the assault, then laid awake all night. He was afraid to report the abuse to his parents, worried what his father might do.

Joeing to the report.

Dozens more victims came forward after Smith’s death.

Taylor, who grew up in a devout Catholic family, said his own relatives didn’t believe him when he reported Smith’s abuse, believing priests to be infallible.

“Just a lifelong battle,” he said. “No amount of money can bring back 45 years of lost friends and family.” Taylor said his abuser, Father Thomas Smith, would take boys on beach trips and make them swim with him in “dark waters.”

Smith’s name appears multiple times in the attorney general’s report, which said he both perpetrated abuse and helped protect other abusers in congregations across the Baltimore area. He died by suicide in 1993, not long after a second victim accused him of assault and filed a lawsuit against the archdiocese. The claim was later dismissed because of the statute of limitations, but a judge found the archdiocese committed a possible dereliction of duties in its handling of abuse cases.

The lawsuit came five years after Smith admitted to church officials that he had abused multiple boys in the 1960s — a revelation that was brushed under the rug, according to the report. Shortly after learning of the abuse, then-Archbishop William Borders wrote Smith a letter praising his “many fine years of priesthood” and ordering him “not to engage in any form of youth work,” accord

 Attorneys to sue archdiocese over child sex abuse - YouTube 

I have had the good fortune to meet Carolyn Disco in her search for justice for the abuse of her two sons by a Catholic Priest. She is a dedicated advocate for survivors of clergy abuse. She represented herself in this case against the Catholic Church. She was the only person standing next to Convent Kelly while she took years of losses against Church attorneys.  

Survivors were not allowed to put victim's impact statements into the report. Survivors were not allowed any comments on the quality of the report or its outcome. Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money to avoid survivors' voices. 

   Catholic Diocese Still Falls Short on Abuse, State Audit Says
     State: Plan to Protect Children Not Followed

 The Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester has failed to ensure that priests, employees, and volunteers who work with children have passed criminal background checks or attended training aimed at preventing and identifying abuse, a state audit of the church revealed  

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2006/03_04/2006_03_31_Moskowitz_CatholicDiocese.htm

We were working with the NH Diocese to offer Retreats to Clergy Abuse Survivors from New Hampshire. The Diocese had a series of three Retreats offered six months apart.  

Bishop McCormack attended the third and final retreat. After answering a lot of tough questions, he made the commitment to offer their retreats to all survivors in New Hampshire. The Retreat Program was to be coordinated through Catholic Charities and the Council of Churches.  

At the same time New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, aka Convent Kelly, got involved. Once she went to court, we knew we had the junior varsity legal team. The Catholic Church lawyers did shameful things to her in court. Like a good Catholic nun, Kelly obeyed the Priest's wishes.  

She refused to include one word in her reports from a NH Clergy Abuse survivor. She refused to locate the predators' priests. She refused to take away professional therapy licenses from predator priests. Instead, she gave them Ministerial Therapy Licenses. Since she seemed incapable of taking away a license, we suggested she issue a "Chicken Hawk License". She earned the name Convent Kelly. 

Bishop McCormack told us that he would not continue with the promised retreats. He was going to be spending their money defending the Diocese from Kelly Ayotte and he could not afford both efforts. The NH Diocese said they had $66 million dollars in revenue that year. 

Convent Kelly was later endorsed by the NH Diocese when she ran for the U.S. Senate. I guarantee you the Church would not have been so ready to further our careers had survivors done the study. One person from VOTF (Voice of the Faithful) was involved in the lawsuit. Not one NH Catholic Clergy Abuse Survivor was involved 

Paul Groleau, former priest, and rapist, is seen here counseling a survivor of child sex crimes 

500 Clergy Rapists Hold State Therapy Licenses, Ayotte Protects Paul Groleau's Therapy Licenses 

Attorney General Kelly Ayotte Gives a Pass to Rapists Catholic Clergy Rapists Holding Pastoral and Therapy Licenses Issued by the State of NH 

A Plaintiff’s attorney informed us of Paul Groleau, a former priest with multiple molestation cases paid by the Church, in business in Manchester as a practicing therapist. He still has a therapy license today despite repeated man on boy encounters. His presence was passed on to Kelly as early as February 2005. He still has both NH licenses to this day.  

We filed an official complaint with the NH Mental Health Board. Ms. Mo Shyne was the volunteer investigator from the library sent to investigate the case. Ms. Shyne was not sure if a child molester could hold a therapy license. She told us Paul Groleau is no danger since he only counsel's old people. She also stated that there was no restriction on his ability to counsel children. The Mental Health investigators find for the therapists 98% of the time. No complaints are shown against a therapist unless there is an adverse finding against him. Paul Groleau still has his licenses to this day with no adverse findings against him.  

A volunteer from our organization booked a session with Mr. Groleau. In her first meeting with Mr. Groleau, she asked for counseling for the trauma she experienced as a child molestation victim. Mr. Groleau agreed to counsel our representative without acknowledging his past as a sex offender. He was prepared to traumatize our colleague for money. Paul Groleau’s picture was taken during this session. In the last of a series of retreats held by the Catholic Church, Bishop McCormack agreed to meet with the clergy abuse survivors. During the question-and-answer period, he was asked to about the therapists holding therapy licenses. He told us he would not discuss specific people, but he would give us initials. The initials he gave us were not those of Paul Groleau.  

In short, he confirmed a second rapist with a therapy license. This information was available to Kelly before she settled with the Catholic Church about the scope and payment of this study. She refused to investigate these issues as a part of the study. 

Groleau, Paul Manchester Diocesan - In 2002, civil suits were filed accusing Groleau of molesting a boy 1969–71 at St. George's in Manchester and molesting another boy 1969–73 at St. Michael's in Exeter. - Groleau was included in a settlement announced 11/26/02. 

Bishop Accountability Confirms 

Bishop Accountability Confirms 

500 Clergy Rapists Hold State Therapy Licenses, Ayotte Protects Paul Groleau's Therapy Licenses 

President Peter Heed 

Peeter Club of America

Heed was bounced out office for trying to fuck every woman in the place.  The DUI set him up as a drunken creeper for life.

NH Attorney General Peter Heed gave the entire Diocese a pass on criminal prosecution. He did not want to ask any tough questions. He really did not want to be outclassed by the Catholic Church attorneys. He was turfed out of office for being a low-class kind of guy. Victims were represented by a lawyer with marginal talent or one distracted by liquor and women.  

Former Priest Paul Groleau was mentioned in the NH Ag Heed’s Report. Fr. Groleau was the Diocese Vocation Director. His job was to recruit people to the ministry in NH. His job placed him in constant contact with teenagers in this work. His decision to welcome Fr. McRae to the team, ushered a whole new era of cooperation amongst pedophiles. Since Fr. Groleau has multiple victims from his man on boy love days, he would have been the perfect person to hold the door open to new predators. Peter Heed knew or should have known Paul Groleau still held NH Therapy Licenses. No action was taken, and no investigation was launched. 

Peter Heed seems to have been distracted from his duties as NH Attorney General. Lady problems and alcohol may have negatively impacted his efforts to hold the Catholic Church accountable. His report had an extensive list of excuses for failing to prosecute anyone from the Catholic Church. He did not mention current charges for failing to report a crime or conspiracy to protect felons from prosecution. 

He did not publish the complete list of predators, he only described the abuses of six predators, he refused to let a victim put one word in his report, and he ignored the rest of the additional victim’s stories in each case. The report gave you the highlights but not a victim impact statement by all the victims of each predator. 

NH Clergy Abuse Victims were not allowed participate before, during, or after the study. 

REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE DIOCESE OF MANCHESTER  

March 3, 2003  

Peter W. Heed Attorney General  

N. William Delker Senior Assistant Attorney General  

James D. Rosenberg Assistant Attorney General  

Office of the Attorney General 33 Capitol Street Concord, N.H. 03301-6397 (603) 271-3671 

II. PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION DURING SEMINARY AND ACCEPTANCE INTO THE PRIESTHOOD  

“In 1972, Macrae entered the Capuchin Order, a religious order affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. (B6726). In 1978, Macrae decided that he wanted to leave the Capuchin Order and become a Diocesan priest. (B6748, B6755). Rev. John P. McHugh, the director of formation at St. Anthony’s Friary in Hudson, New Hampshire wrote to  

Fr. Paul Groleau, Diocesan vocation director, on May 24, 1978, to express some reservation about Macrae's 1 As discussed in further detail below, this victim was different from the victim that the Diocese was aware of in November 1983. 2 Citation is to the sentencing hearing in State v. Macrae held over the course of three days in Cheshire County Superior Court in November 1994 followed by the volume number. 3 Citation is to the State’s brief to the New Hampshire Supreme Court in State v. Macrae.  

130 

fitness to be a priest. (B6749). While the Capuchin Order unanimously recommended Macrae for the priesthood, McHugh’s letter to Fr. Groleau is significantly qualified about the recommendation. For example, McHugh writes that it might be acceptable if Macrae took “a shot at diocesan priesthood” and that the Diocese could allow him into the seminary and “see” what happens. Finally, McHugh’s letter concludes that “[another priest on the staff suggests that perhaps Gordon could profit from some professional counselling regarding the formation of relationships necessary for ministry. (Gordon has had some therapy before.)” (B6750).  

On June 8, 1978, Fr. Paul Groleau, the Diocese’s vocation director, sent Gordon Macrae for a psychological evaluation before he entered the seminary. (B3022). The evaluation begins by noting: “It appears that we are dealing with two different individuals.” One of Macrae's personalities is “well-adjusted,” the other is “insecure with evidence of serious anxiety and depression.” (B3022). He also notes: “The feelings of anxiety, insecurity, isolation, detachment, and deprivation shown, are evidence of feelings of personal inadequacy and chronic maladjustment.” (B3023). He also recognizes that “Gordon has an unresolved problem of sexual identification as heterosexual adjustment is conceived of as threatening and dangerous.” (B3023-24). The psychologist notes: “It is difficult at this time to project into the future.” (B3022). He concludes that Macrae should be accepted into the seminary on a trial basis. (B3022).  

On July 27, 1978, the Rector of St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Maryland wrote to Fr. Groleau and advised him that another therapist had evaluated Macrae's psychological test results and concluded that the seminary should not accept Macrae. (B3026). The rector rejected this recommendation because he “was relying heavily on [Groleau’s] judgment and assessment.” (B3026). Based on this reasoning, the second therapist changed his recommendation to “cautious acceptance.” (B3026). The rector of the seminary left it up to the Diocese as to whether Macrae's acceptance should be conditioned on his agreement to attend counseling. He concluded that if the Diocese did not think it was necessary, “we can wait and see if Gordon’s behavior might lead us to make such a recommendation.” (B3026). That same day, the seminary sent Macrae his acceptance letter, which did not include any condition of counseling. (B3028-29).” 

Macrae is serving a 33½- to 67-year sentence for raping a 15-year-old Keene boy. He pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three other boys shortly after that conviction in 1994.  

The Real Story Of Paul Groleau's Fellow Rapist 

Heed began his career in homicide prosecution for the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office in the 1970s. In 1980, he entered private practice.  

In 1999, Heed was elected Cheshire County Attorney.  

He served in that position from 2000 until 2003, when he became New Hampshire Attorney General. Heed resigned his position as New Hampshire Attorney General in 2004 following allegations of sexual misconduct.