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[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Knestout Made a Public Sex Offender Pastor Without Informing the CongregationFrom George Neumayr on Facebook:In 2018, Knestout selected Fr. Wayne Ball pastor of St. Augustine parish in the Richmond diocese despite Ball’s 2003 guilty plea in public sex case.“Leave me out of your article,” Fr Wayne Ball, pastor of St. Augustine parish in Virginia’s Richmond diocese, barked at me. I had called Ball up to inquire as to whether he and the bishop who selected him for that position in 2018 had informed the congregation at St. Augustine about Ball’s criminal past. In 2003, Ball quietly pled...

[Catholic Caucus] The US Bishops Promote a Protégé to the Rapist Theodore McCarrickRichmond Bishop Barry Knestout will head up of all things the bishops’ child protection committee.It is impossible to overstate the tone-deafness of America’s Catholic bishops in recent years. They seem determined to give the Catholic Church a black eye. The Theodore McCarrick scandal — he was a prominent cardinal in Washington, D.C., who preyed on boys, seminarians, and priests in plain sight for decades — marks one of the lowest points in the history of the Church. In light of that, wouldn’t the bishops want to avoid any...

The Diocese of Arlington’s former director for the Office of Child Protection, Father Terry Specht, was indicted last week on two charges of sexual abuse. A grand jury in Virginia indicted Specht Dec. 20 on one count of aggravated sexual battery of a child under the age of 13 and one count of sexual abuse of a child over whom a custodial or supervisory relationship existed. Michael Kelly, Chief of Staff for the office of Virginia’s attorney general, Mark Herring, told CNA that the maximum penalty for the first count is 20 years in prison, and five for the second....

Catholic priest who has spoken out about clergy abuse faces removal as Richmond Bishop with petition to the Vatican RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A Virginia priest could be removed from the priesthood. He continued to blog about the Catholic Church sex abuse scandals even after the Catholic Diocese of Richmond Bishop ordered him to keep quiet.8News first began digging into this story back in early 2020. Father Mark White at first obeyed an order to stop blogging. However, he restarted the online conversation once COVID hit and in-person church services halted. That has now prompted Bishop Barry Knestout to...

Catholic bishop suspends priest and issues trespass order over blog about clergy sex abuse A months-long standoff between a Catholic bishop in Virginia and a priest who blogs frequent, strident criticism of the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse has boiled over, with the diocese suspending the priest from ministry and changing parish and residence locks where he was assigned, the priest said Saturday. The Rev. Mark White, who has been assigned to two southwest Virginia parishes, had refused to leave the church properties despite a trespass order, saying Richmond Bishop Barry Knestout is the one violating canon law by...