Advocates for Reform and Safety
In light of the news surrounding the sexual abuse of children by members of clergy or religious organizations across the country, the Department of Justice is gathering information from the public regarding complaints of this nature in California.
Source: Clergy Abuse
The announcement follows a similar one in D.C. and in more than a dozen other states.
Virginia is the 13th U.S. state this year — plus the District — to announce an investigation of the Catholic Church, a historic high.
All Survivors Day is an international opportunity to raise awareness of sexual abuse, stand in support and recognition of survivors, and to come together to change the culture that surrounds sexual…
Source: Spread the Word: Sample Social Media Content for #AllSurvivorsDay
A law firm suing California bishops for the records of priests accused of sexual abuse released its own report Tuesday listing more than 200 clergy in the San Francisco Bay Area it says are accused of misconduct.
Source: New Report Lists 263 Bay Area Priests Accused Of Sexual Abuse
WASHINGTON – The Superior Court Division’s Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Section and the Victim Witness Assistance Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia are launching a hotline and e-mail address for survivors to report child sexual abuse by clergy, U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu announced today.
Two people familiar with the probe say federal prosecutors have served subpoenas on dioceses across the state that seek a trove of sensitive files and testimony from church leaders.
Source: Federal prosecutors open probe into clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania
Yet again, efforts to reform Pennsylvania’s child sex crimes laws appear to have failed in the Legislature. The Senate’s top leader on Wednesday lamented the failure, but left room open for more talks.
Source: ‘It’s a disaster’: Senate leader laments end of sex abuse victims bill, open to talks
The U.S. Department of Justice is launching an investigation into child sex abuse within Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic churches, the latest fallout of widespread allegations made public by a grand jury probe this summer. Here’s a timeline of events since the report’s release.
Source: How a Catholic sex abuse report in Pennsylvania echoed around the U.S.
Posted By Dara Kam, News Service of Florida on Fri, Oct 5, 2018 at 10:45 am
Catholicism isn’t the only religion with sexual abuse scandals. Three S.F. women are working to expose cases within the Orthodox Church.
“These are our files,” says Cappy Larson, opening a desk drawer in the attic of her Haight District home. “Don’t look closely.”
The drawer is stuffed with folders, neatly arranged. Inside, Larson says, are letters from the hundreds of people who have contacted her in the past 10 years claiming they were sexually abused by Orthodox priests. In 1999, Larson, her daughter Greta, and family friend Melanie Sakoda founded the Protection of the Theotokos (“Mother of God”), an organization devoted to exposing sexual abuse in the Orthodox Church. It is a personal matter for them: In 1991, two of Sakoda’s children and one of Cappy Larson’s were allegedly molested by a monk at the Holy Trinity Cathedral. Both Sakoda and the Larsons sued Holy Trinity’s administrative body, the Orthodox Church in America; though the OCA denied any wrongdoing, it paid over $200,000 to settle the case with both families.
Since then, the three women have watchdogged Orthodox parishes and listened to the stories of victims — some of whom will write them for years without revealing their names. Fear of retribution runs deep in the Roman Catholic Church, as the reports on its current sexual abuse scandal bear out. In the older and more conservative Orthodox Church, the fear can run even deeper. “You feel like it’s just you against this big historical thing,” says Greta Larson. “That’s in the Catholic Church, too, but it’s more so in the Orthodox Church. There’s a liberal vein of the Catholic Church, but [the Orthodox Church] is not even close to having that.”
Orthodoxy is not immune to sexual abuse charges, however. The latest case came to light in April, when a defrocked priest named Pangratios Vrionis surrendered to authorities in Queens, N.Y., on charges that he molested a 14-year-old boy.
Source: Un-Orthodox Behavior
House amendment would open a 2-year window for now-adult victims of childhood abuse to file claims.
http://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2018/09/sen-bill-could-waive-statute-of-limitations/
