NEWS & EVENTS

It was one of the more searing allegations in the recent Philadelphia grand jury report on clergy sex abuse: A Bristol Township man killed himself after the Archdiocese of Philadelphia refused to believe that a priest had molested him when he was an altar boy. On Wednesday, relatives of the man, Daniel Neill, became the latest to sue the archdiocese over its response to abuse victims. Neill shot himself in June 2009. "It's a wrongful death is what it is," said Jeff Anderson, a lawyer for Neill's family. The grand jury cited the handling of Neill's complaint as one of three ...

Press Release April 5, 2011   Wrongful Death Claim to Be Filed Against Philadelphia Archdiocese Wednesday   (Philadelphia) Attorneys for the family of “Ben”, the 36 year-old former St. Mark Parish altar boy whose tragic story of sexual abuse, rejection and suicide was told in the recent Philadelphia Grand Jury Report on clergy abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, will file a wrongful death lawsuit against the diocese in the Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, April 6, 2011.   The following St...

AS A Catholic priest in voluntary exile from the Diocese of Oakland since March 15, 2005, I decided a year ago to stand in public solidarity with those being hurt the most by my church. Every Sunday I stand outside Christ the Light Cathedral in Oakland with a sign that reads: "Structural reform now! Include the Excluded: Women, Abuse Survivors, Gay Persons." One recent Sunday a young man approached, read my sign and said to me: "I have a better wording for your sign: (explitive) the pope." Another passerby said to me, "Why reform the Catholic Church? Why not just shut it down...