In the audience will be 200 men who are survivors of sexual
abuse.  One of the themes of the show is
that sexual abuse of boys is a much larger problem than most realize.  According to the National Center for Victims
of Crime, it is estimated that one in six boys will experience an episode of
sexual abuse before his eighteenth birthday. 
Most are abused by either a family member or someone outside of the
family whom they know and trust.

An recent op-ed authored by Martha Escutia discussed the case of Fr. Alejandro Castillo, a priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Ontario, California accused of abusing a minor parishioner.    The case of Fr.  Castillo now reads as an eerily familiar pattern of failure in properly handling credibly accused priests among clergy and an avoidance of the justice system.   News released yesterday announced that Castillo, charged with molesting a 12-year-old minor parishioner, won a reduced bail, from $1million down to $300,000.  Prosecutors argued in vain to the judge that Castillo is a flight risk, as he has family in Mexico, and still poses a danger to children. 

CNN aired a powerful documentary last weekend, “What The Pope Knew”, that features many of our courageous clients.  In the documentary, Jeff Anderson is interviewed and provides insightful commentary on the Catholic hierarch’s failures in handling the childhood sexual abuse crisis, and the strength of our clients in coming forward to expose pedophile priests.  Jeff described the church’s policies and procedures to handle child sexual abuse by clergy as being institutionally deficient: “the whole process is designed to avoid scandal.”   Many of our courageous clients are…

Martha Escutia, a lawyer and former state senator in California, is partnering with our firm to combat the clergy childhood sexual abuse crisis in the Latino community.  She will appear on CNN this evening as a panelist discussing “What The Pope Knew”, a documentary that aired last weekend on CNN and will air tomorrow globally on CNN Spanish channels.   Ms. Escutia recently authored a compelling op/ed piece for the Latino community newspapers in Southern California.  Ms. Escutia’s op/ed is a call to Latino Catholics to make child safety a priority by making it safe for those… (Con traducción en español)

Mañana CNN presentará un documental sobre la participación del Papa Benedicto XVI en los abusos sexuales contra menores por parte del clero.  Lo que el Papa Sabía se presentará hoy a las 9 de la noche.   Hasta ahora, la mayoría de los reportajes sobre el Papa y su papel en el abuso sexual a manos del clero se ha enfocado en casos particulares. El documental de CNN es mucho más amplio e incluye las decisiones que tomó el Papa cuando era arzobispo en Alemania y cuando estaba a cargo del departamento del Vaticano se suponía debía manejar los reportes de abuso sexual perpetrados por el…

This weekend CNN will air a documentary about the Pope’s involvement in clergy sexual abuse. What the Pope Knew debuts Saturday at 8 pm EST and runs again Saturday at 11 pm EST and Sunday at 8 pm and 11pm EST. Until now most of the coverage about the Pope and his role in clergy sexual abuse has focused on individual cases. CNN’s documentary takes a much broader look at the Pope’s decisions when he was an Archbishop in Germany and when he was in charge of the Vatican’s department that was supposed to deal with clergy sexual abuse. More information about the documentary is…

One of the most effective tools in fighting child sexual abuse and protecting kids has been the internet. The internet has been a source of constant information about predators and those who protect predators. Tomorrow I will appear in court in St. Louis, Missouri to represent a website author who created a website to protect kids called http://protectkidsfromclergypredators.com/. This website contains mostly court records from a child sexual abuse lawsuit against Rev. James D. Manning . Manning settled the child sexual abuse suit out of court and then turned around and filed a lawsuit against…

Five years ago, John Doe RG contacted our law firm seeking help. He had been sexually abused by Fr. Harry Monroe, at the time, an unknown Catholic priest/perpetrator in Indianapolis, Indiana. RG was the first to publicly expose Fr. Monroe’s abuse and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis’ concealment of that abuse. Fourteen more boys followed in bringing lawsuits. Last week, RG settled his lawsuit and one of the questions is whether this is the end of this chapter in his life, or just the beginning. One thing for sure is that RG cannot change the fact that he was sexually abused by his priest. He ca…

Five years ago, John Doe RG contacted our law firm seeking help. He had been sexually abused by Fr. Harry Monroe, at the time, an unknown Catholic priest/perpetrator in Indianapolis, Indiana. RG was the first to publicly expose Fr. Monroe’s abuse and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis’ concealment of that abuse. Fourteen more boys followed in bringing lawsuits. Last week, RG settled his lawsuit and one of the questions is whether this is the end of this chapter in his life, or just the beginning. One thing for sure is that RG cannot change the fact that he was sexually abused by his priest.

You can’t knock progress… right? Well, the German Catholic Church has made some this week and you can be the judge. Yesterday, the Church adopted stricter guidelines for leaders to follow when reporting and handling cases of clergy sex abuse. Since 2002, church leaders in Germany have been required to report “established” cases of child sex abuse to law enforcement, unless the victim has other wishes. You can imagine the wiggle room this allowed: not only could church leaders loosely define what constitutes an “established case” in order to suit themselves and their reputations, they cou