Free Republic

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — After she made her First Communion as a little girl, Jennifer Haselberger was distraught to learn the Catholic church had no saint Jennifer, and she had no saint to call her own. So her mom opened up a book and pointed to Joan of Arc. "There. That's yours," she said. Years later, Haselberger is in a fight of her own after going public with claims that archdiocese leaders in St. Paul mishandled allegations of clergy sexual misconduct. Turns out, Haselberger may have borrowed a little bravery from the headstrong French heroine she has long admired....

The Vineyard Chattanooga released a statement Saturday in response to one of its volunteer counselors being arrested on child molestation charges. Zachary Scott Anderle is charged with cruelty to children, child molestation, sexual assault and battery. He is accused of exposing himself to several children and getting into bed naked with one at a Christian camp where he was a counselor. Carroll County officials say he slapped one of the children who resisted. The incident occurred at Woodland Christian Camp and Retreat Center in Temple. The director says a private group rented the camp, and directors support the legal process.

Des Moines police arrested a former youth pastor and charged him with sexual abuse. “This has been going on for a brief period of time, but I can’t go into details as exactly how long,” says Des Moines Police Sgt. Daniel Blom. Police were contacted Monday by a teenage girl and her parents. The girl reported an alleged sexual assault perpetrated by 27-year-old Ryan McKelvey. “Looking into it, doing their investigation, they discovered there might be a second victim. They made contact with the second victim and confirmed that there was an inappropriate sexual contact,” says Blom. McKelvey is a...

FAYETTE COUNTY, Iowa – A Guatemalan man living illegally in Iowa under an assumed identity has been accused of kidnapping and sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl. Police said 23-year-old Rodrigo Sandoval Estrada – who had been living in Ossian as 20-year-old Ramon Marcus Perez – has four more victims in neighboring Winneshiek County. Fayette County Sheriff Marty Fisher said their investigation began August 1 when officials with the Department of Human Services contacted the sheriff’s office as part of a sexual abuse inquiry that had originated in Winneshiek County. “DHS knew about one incident and it led to more,” Fisher...

The Catholic church in Scotland faces a fresh sex-abuse crisis involving some of the country's senior clerics. The Observer has seen documents suggesting a scandal similar to the one that led to the resignation of Cardinal Keith O'Brien as Archbishop of Edinburgh and St Andrews. As a seminarian, a priest known as "Father Michael", who wishes to remain anonymous while an appeal to Rome is made, said he was sexually assaulted by a parish priest, Father Paul Moore. Father Michael said the church failed to deal appropriately with his complaint over a 17-year period, and that he is now being...

SAN DIEGO -- Three ex-supporters repeated their demand for Mayor Bob Filner to resign Monday and said he forcibly kissed two constituents and grabbed the buttocks and breast of a staff member. Filner's behavior toward women is so egregious that women who work for him call him a "dirty old man" and coined the phrases "the Filner headlock" and "the Filner dance" to describe how he isolates women and then makes unwanted advances, attorney Marco Gonzalez said. Gonzalez said a sexual harassment claim will be filed with city officials. Also, lawsuits are a possibility, he said. "Bob Filner is tragically...

MILWAUKEE (AP) — As more victims of clergy sex abuse came forward, then-Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan oversaw a plan to pay some abusers to leave the priesthood after writing to Vatican officials with increasing frustration and concern, warning them about the potential for scandal if they did not defrock problem priests, according to documents released Monday. Dolan’s correspondence with Vatican officials and priests accused of sexual abuse was included in about 6,000 pages of documents the Archdiocese of Milwaukee released Monday as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court with clergy sex abuse victims suing it for fraud....

The Philadelphia archdiocese has revealed that it faces $350 million in long-term debt, aggravated by annual budget deficits. Releasing audited financial statements for the first time, the archdiocese showed a $39.2 million deficit for the fiscal year ending in June 2012. Although that year’s financial reports included some special expenses, such as the costs of sex-abuse litigation, even without those expenses the budget showed a deficit of more than $17 million. The deficit for the most recent fiscal year was $6 million, reported Timothy O’Shaugnessy, who was appointed last year as the top financial officer for the archdiocese. The next...

Revere Police said two teenage brothers are being held by immigration officials after each was charged this week with sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a 6-year-old relative. A 14-year-old juvenile male was arrested and charged with indecent assault-and-battery on a child under 14; and assault to rape a child; at 6 p.m. Tuesday. A 16-year-old juvenile male was arrested and charged with the same offenses on Wednesday. O’Hara said the alleged victim was a 6-year-old female. O’Hara said the charges were a result of “an observation a family member made.” She said bail was also set for each brother,...

For eight decades, leaders of a community of Catholic priests and brothers spanning 10 U.S. states acted inadequately in responding to sex abuse allegations and prioritized protecting accused abusers over their victims, concludes an audit released by the group Tuesday. The report, released by a province of Franciscan priests known as Capuchins, could raise questions of how communities of religious, which are not under direct control of bishops, are handling abuse allegations. It also addresses themes many critics of the U.S. church's response to sex abuse have raised since the issue made national headlines in 2002. The report says that...

A third-grade boy was dragged into a bathroom at his Harlem elementary school and forced to perform oral sex on three male classmates, including one who was involved in an attack on a female student two years earlier, according to a bombshell lawsuit. The 8-year-old boy had just finished lunch at Public School 194 and was in a hallway waiting for class to start when a fifth-grader, the ringleader, and two third-graders pushed him screaming and pleading for help into a bathroom stall, the lawsuit says. He said one boy held his hands behind his back during the March 2012...

The BBC says 152 new sex abuse allegations have been made since the Jimmy Savile scandal erupted last fall. The broadcaster said Friday the allegations have been made against 81 current and former staff members and contributors, including some who have died.

Inadequately covered females force male members in the Religion of Piece to react impurely. Ditto in the U.S. Armed Forces. That must cease, right now. No matter how hard the task may become, the rank and file must embrace Our Loving President's creative solutions. President Obama's gracious embrace of Islamism and his own heroic assassination of Osama Bin Laden have brought peace to the Islamic World including even the United States. Because of his historic foresight in making it perfectly clear that "the future must not belong to those who speak accurately of slander the prophet of Islam," we are no longer under threat of attack by Islamic terrorists extremists and...

CAHOKIA • A Cahokia High School assistant teacher and coach has been charged with having sexual contact with a teenage boy and transmission of HIV. Mario L. Hunt, 35, of the 1900 block of Florence Street in Cahokia, was charged in St. Clair County on Monday with criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual abuse transmission of HIV. The offenses happened with a 17-year-old boy during the first six months of 2011.

Facebook is rampant with child sexual abuse content, child exploitation material, online child predators, harassment, stalking and cyber-bullying of minors and various other forms of predatory activities targeting minors. Facebook provides several options for reporting offensive or harassing content, including spam, scams, graphic violence, hate speech, nudity, etc. Yet there is no recourse for someone wanting to report explicit child sexual abuse content or pedophiles and other kinds of sexual predators. During mid March 2013 a video of severe and horrific child sexual abuse of a toddler girl went viral on Facebook, garnering more than 30,000 shares over a period...

Richmond, VA—The pastor of a large, well-known church in Richmond has been accused of sexual misconduct on a group of websites. A group of Richmond faith leaders held a protest calling for his resignation on Monday afternoon. On multiple websites, Geronimo Aguilar has been accused of sexual misconduct. 8News also discovered a Facebook page called "Richmond Outreach Center Recovery Group." It has been set up for those who allege to be victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Aguilar. We have confirmed that Aguilar was under investigation in California and Texas; a police report shows that he was alleged...

Offenders in the Church: Who are they and how do they operate? http://vimeo.com/58304996

Michael Lewis is charged with 335 counts of sexual abuse. More than 100 counts are tied to the first victim, who testified Wednesday....She also testified Lewis made her ask for birth control, "Michael forced me to go on birth control. I didn't want to. He told me to lie to the doctor and say I was having sex with a 14 year old."

A rare, salacious lawsuit against the elite DC private school drags high-profile Washingtonians into unwanted limelight and airs graphic e-mails from the psychologist who taught sex ed at the Obama daughters’ school. The exceedingly messy lawsuit is headed for trial—and the circle of high-profile Washingtonians wrapped up in the case is expanding. A Sidwell official claims a school psychologist had an affair with his wife while treating his daughter, then five, and that Sidwell took “flagrant and outrageous actions” that allowed the “open sexual relationship.” For Sidwell—an elite private school in DC with an annual tuition of around $34,000—the lawsuit...

Pope Francis has called for "decisive action" in the fight against sex abuse of minors by priests. He told Bishop Gerhard Mueller, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith - the Vatican watchdog that deals with sex abuse cases - to ensure that perpetrators were punished. It was the Argentine Pope's first public statement on clerical sex abuse. A leading sex abuse survivors' group has responded with scepticism, saying "actions speak louder than words". The new Pope was elected last month, replacing Pope Benedict, who became the first pope in 600 years to resign. When first elected, Benedict...