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A Roman Catholic diocese based in California has announced that it is filing for bankruptcy due to the expenses related to numerous lawsuits centered on priest abuse. The Diocese of Sacramento released a statement on Monday confirming that Bishop Jaime Soto had “filed for reorganization of the Diocese of Sacramento’s debts in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.” The filing comes as the diocese faced over 250 lawsuits related to sex abuse of minors by clergy and lay employees, stemming from incidents that go as far back as the 1950s. “This wave of new claims followed a 2019 law allowing victim-survivors to file...

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy to help pay for more than 60 pending lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse. The lawsuits stem from former students at the Academy of Mount St. John in Deep River. Gale Howard is a leader of the Connecticut chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests, or SNAP. Howard said the bankruptcy limits fair compensation, especially for those who have yet to come forward.

SAGINAW, MI – When police executed search warrants at three Catholic Diocese of Saginaw properties last year during an investigation into claims of sexual abuse of minors, documents show they seized nearly 60 items of evidence. Among them, located in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet at diocese headquarters, was a file labeled “victim list.” That information is contained in search warrant paperwork detailing what police seized during the March 2018 raid. The paperwork was recently unsealed and copies were obtained by MLive and The Saginaw News. The list of confiscated property shows investigators took 57 items during the...

Hardly any of the more than 100 Buffalo area priests implicated as child molesters spent so much as one day in jail. For years, most of their victims were too scared or embarrassed to make complaints. But Buffalo Police had marching orders not to arrest Catholic priests, according to former vice squad Detective Martin Harrington and other retired officers. Instead they alerted the bishop's office to any illegal activities. "The department's unwritten policy was that Catholic priests did not get arrested," said Harrington, who investigated vice crimes for 17 years and retired in 1995. "I never had any experience with...

Pope Francis donated $500,000 to Mexico-based projects to help migrant communities as media attention has faded, the Vatican said Saturday. The funds will be distributed between 27 projects associated with 16 Mexican dioceses and congregations, all of which asked for help to continue providing food, lodging, and basic necessities to those fleeing their home countries through Mexico. “In recent months, thousands of migrants have arrived in Mexico, having travelled more than 4,000 kilometers on foot and with makeshift vehicles from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Men and women, often with young children, flee poverty and violence, hoping for a better...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 1, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Episcopal church in the Diocese of Washington, D.C., passed a resolution last week to stop using masculine pronouns for God in future updates to its Book of Common Prayer. The resolution to stop using "gendered language for God" was passed quickly by delegates to the Diocese's 123rd Convention. “If revision of the Book of Common Prayer is authorized, to utilize expansive language for God from the rich sources of feminine, masculine, and non-binary imagery for God found in Scripture and tradition and, when possible, to avoid the use of gendered pronouns for...

For your Brick By Brick file.More great news from the Extraordinary Ordinary of Madison, His Excellency Most Reverend Robert C Morlino.This comes by way of the liberal (for Madison a tautology), secular newspaper the WSJ. My emphases and comments. At area Catholic churches, the tabernacle, ‘Christ’s dwelling place,’ moves to center stageASHTON -- Like centuries of Catholic priests before him, the Rev. Tait Schroeder consecrated the communion bread at a midday Mass last week, turning it into what the denomination's faithful believe is the actual body of Jesus Christ.After offering the sacramental bread -- referred to as the Eucharistic host...

St. Francis Borgia priest cleared of wrongdoing in assault allegation CEDARBURG — Pastor Tom Eichenberger said it will take the rest of his life to restore the credibility that was called into question following an accusation that he assaulted a boy while on his first assignment as a young priest. The St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church priest returned to his parish Monday after being cleared of any wrongdoing by a retired police detective and an Archdiocese of Milwaukee review board. “The first words out of my mouth have to be thanks be to God for restoring me to the place...

Washington D.C., Jan 21, 2015 / 05:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a petition from a Louisiana Catholic diocese that fears a civil lawsuit could force a priest to violate the seal of confession or go to jail. The Diocese of Baton Rouge and diocesan priest Father Jeff Bayhi were disappointed by the decision, which the diocese said has “significant ramifications for religious freedom in Louisiana and beyond.” “The diocese and Fr. Bayhi will continue their efforts to protect the guarantees of religious freedom set forth in our state and federal constitutions, and are...

ALBANY, New York — The cathedral filled with applause as New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan placed the bishop's miter on the head of the Rev. Monsignor Edward Scharfenberger, ordained Thursday as the 10th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Albany.Hundreds of white-robed priests and 34 bishops from across New York and New England participated in the Ordination Mass at the red-stone neo-Gothic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception near Albany's capitol complex.Scharfenberger, 65, of New York City, was appointed by Pope Francis to succeed Bishop Howard Hubbard, who was the longest-tenured bishop of a single diocese in the nation when...

In an article for The American Catholic which may be found here, The Motley Monk writes: "It’s pretty easy to tell that the folks over at the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) aren’t happy campers these days. Some of their heroes fighting on the front lines for women’s ordination are being “disciplined.” According to a recent NCR article: A longtime peace and human rights activist arrested countless times, Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada has been removed from public ministry for concelebrating Mass with a woman priest in 2011. Poor Fr. Zawada! After all he’s done over the decades to promote the cause...

Tom, a faithful Catholic of the Worcester Diocese and a contributor to this Blog, writes: "The February 10, 2014, Diocesan Dispatch publicizes the following upcoming pro-abortion speaker at Holy Cross College: 'TALK ABOUT PROPHETIC SPEECH AT HOLY CROSS Legal scholar and moral theologian M. Cathleen Kaveny, the newly named Darald and Juliet Libby Professor at Boston College, will give a lecture titled “Prophetic Rhetoric in the Public Square” at the College of the Holy Cross on Thursday, Feb. 13 ...' The Irish Rover, an alternate student newspaper at the University of Notre Dame (where she formerly taught) and the Sycamore...

Although Pope John Paul II proclaimed the definitive nature of the Church's doctrine on the male-only ministerial priesthood in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994) and said that the issue was not to be discussed any longer, Dr. Thomas Groome, in his 1995 book Language for a Catholic Church (revised edition) that, "..the continued exclusion of women from ordained ministry in the Catholic Church is seen by fair-minded scholars as without theological or biblical warrant" (p. 31). In this same work, Groome posited that it would be "helpful to reduce reliance on gender-based pronouns" when referring to Jesus in order "to emphasise his...

Once again, The Catholic Free Press [Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts] has demonstrated that it is not committed toward offering its readers an authentic Catholic teaching. Writing in the June 14, 2013 edition, Fr. Conrad S. Pecevich, Pastor of St. Anne's Parish in Southborough, correctly notes that, "Time and again throughout the Gospels, Jesus chastised the religious people of his day, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, for their hasty judgmental attitudes." So far so good. But then Fr. Pecevich writes, "When we commit the sin of judgment, we place ourselves morally above others. We forget that, like them, we are poor,...

Featured Term (selected at random):ORDINARY JURISDICTION The right to exercise authority when this right is attached to an ecclesiastical office. This is the jurisdiction enjoyed by the Pope over the entire Church, by a bishop over his diocese, and in the internal forum by the pastor over the members of his parish. Jurisdiction can be either personal or vicarious, depending on whether it is exercised by the officeholder or by someone he delegated. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Some years ago, a faithful and dedicated priest decided to leave the Diocese of Worcester and become a Chaplain for the United States Army. During a conversation back in 2000, this priest-friend told me that he had had enough of the nonsense within the diocese. This was after he presided over a graveside service for my father. This same faithful priest has a letter in this week's "Catholic" [when they feel like it] Free Press. As usual, it is an excellent letter. But then, this priest reads the life of Jesus Christ. The letter is entitled "Choose life and love,...

In a previous post, I noted how The Catholic Free Press is once again promoting Sister Joyce Rupp, a dissident religious who rails against the hierarchical Church while promoting New Age spirituality. Many parishes throughout the Worcester Diocese are also promoting the upcoming day-long retreat with this angry, dissenting religious. The retreat, which is to be held on September 29th at St. Anne's Parish hall in Shrewsbury, is being sponsored by the "Commission for Women," and has as its theme: "The Gift of Self - Compassion." Sister Rupp, the self proclaimed spiritual midwife, claims to have learnt a lot from...

Dr. John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University. Washington D.C., May 17, 2012 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. has By condemned Georgetown University's invitation to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to speak during commencement weekend.In light of Sebelius' attempts to drastically redefine religious ministry in a way that threatens Catholic institutions, Georgetown should do more to “speak up for freedom of religion,” the archdiocese said.In a May 15 statement, it explained that Catholics are understandably shocked by Georgetown’s decision to honor Sebelius, the architect of a contraception mandate that poses...

Monday, April 23, 2012I call upon the Diocese of Worcester to renounce the evil spirits which plague it Father Jeffrey Steffon is an expert on Satanism and the occult. He has worked counseling victims of satanic ritual abuse and is a popular conference speaker. In his book entitled "Satanism: Is it real?," Fr. Steffon, addressing the popularity of the New Age movement, says that the movement is not new, but is a revival of paganism. He writes, "This revival includes the resurgence of goddess worship. Through ritual, celebration, and myth, NAM and neo=pagans attempt to reharmonize themselves with the Whole...

Saint Augustine, in his Confessions, Book VIII, Chapter X, describes his torment at being torn between two wills, the carnal and the spiritual, and writes, "..as yet I was bound by the iron chain of my own will. The enemy held fast my will, and had made of it a chain, and had bound me tight with it. For out of the perverse will came lust, and the service of lust ended in habit, and habit, not resisted, became necessity. By these links, as it were, forged together -- which is why I called it 'a chain' - a hard...