DOJ files to revoke citizenship of Capuchin priest convicted of abusing minors

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed to revoke the citizenship of a Capuchin priest from Mexico who was convicted of sexually abusing minors while working in a parish in Washington, D.C.

If the federal government’s case against 53-year-old Fr. Urbano Vazquez Ortega succeeds, he will likely be deported. He is currently serving a 15-year sentence for sexual abuse of minors.

A Capuchin priest working in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., Vazquez Ortega was found guilty in 2019 of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl and a 9-year-old girl at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, where he served as assistant pastor. The abuse took place in 2015 and 2016.

In 2021, while serving his sentence in the child sex abuse case, Vazquez Ortega was found guilty in a separate case of sexually abusing an adult.

That abuse, which took place in 2017, involved the inappropriate touching of a woman during confession.

Vazquez Ortega was given the maximum 180-day sentence for the misdemeanor charge, to be served consecutive to the 15-year sentence he was already serving.

The priest’s faculties were removed by the Archdiocese of Washington in 2018.

Last week, the Department of Justice announced that it had filed for the denaturalization of a number of individuals, including Vazquez Ortega.

Paul Hunker, an immigration attorney in Texas and partner at De Mott, Curtright & Armendáriz, LLP, told The Pillar that denaturalization cases must be heard before a federal judge.

“The government has to prove by clear evidence that he was not eligible for naturalization or he committed fraud in his application for naturalization,” Hunker said.

“When someone’s naturalized, they’re a citizen, and so the government needs really strong evidence to take that away.”

The Department of Justice maintains that Vazquez Ortega and the other individuals facing denaturalization cases “procured citizenship through willful misrepresentations and concealment of their crimes.”

During the naturalization process, applicants are asked if they have ever “committed, assisted in committing, or attempted to commit a crime or offense” for which they have not been arrested.

Hunker that it may sound strange to ask people this question.

But he said, if an individual is later found to have lied in response to that question, their citizenship can be revoked.

Vazquez Ortega became a naturalized citizen in 2017 – after the abuse of minors took place. While the details of his particular case are not public, it is likely that he failed to disclose these crimes when he applied for naturalization.

“If the court finds that he committed fraud in his naturalization application, they take away the citizenship. He reverts back to the status he had before that, which would be a lawful permanent resident,” Hunker explained.

“And then the government would have to institute removal proceedings to remove him from the country.”

Typically, he noted, people finish their criminal sentence and are deported after that.

The decision to see Ortega denaturalized raises questions about whether other priests convicted of crimes could lose their legal status, or their citizenship, in the United States.

According to research from the Catholic University of America, 24% of priests serving in the United States are foreign born.

An analysis of clerical fraud cases from 1963 to 2020, coauthored by Robert Warren, an assistant professor of accounting at Radford University and expert in ecclesiastical fraud, found that about 1 in 5 fraudulent priests are immigrants.

In 2020, a Polish priest in South Dakota was sentenced to 7 years and 9 months in prison on more than 60 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and other related charges.

Last year, a priest from India pleaded guilty to stealing money from his Catholic parish in Iowa and placing it in a scam investment without consulting or informing the parish finance council.

In 2025, a Polish Capuchin friar in New York pleaded guilty to wire fraud, after federal prosecutors said the priest bilked Catholics by pretending to run fake medical clinics in Beirut, Lebanon, pretending to be a doctor, and falsely claiming direct lineage to two European royal families.

At his sentencing, the friar’s defense attorney told the court that he would “likely face deportation.”

However, not every crime committed by a foreign priest or religious will necessarily result in denaturalization.

Simply committing a crime does not cause a person to lose their naturalized citizenship. But certain crimes committed before and during the naturalization process can make an individual ineligible for naturalization, Hunker explained. And lying about previous crimes committed during the application process can result in citizenship later being revoked.

Given the strict criteria for an individual to lose his or her citizenship, Hunker told The Pillar that he does not expect to see the denaturalization of priests and religious become a widespread phenomenon.

“I expect to see very few priests and religious [facing denaturalization],” he said.

Hunker said in the clients he represents, he is far more likely to see cases of priests and religious running into problems with paperwork or deadlines in obtaining or extending their legal status.

He added that while cases of priests committing crimes may make headlines, it would be a mistake to think of foreign priests serving in the United States as more likely than others to commit crimes.

“They’re actually critically important for our country,” he said.

“When you have tens of thousands of priests and religious, it stands to reason that some of them are going to do bad things. It’s the nature of reality. Unfortunately, people sin and err, and being a priest or religious doesn’t protect you from that,” Hunker said.

In his view, though, there are also many “good, holy, hardworking, priests and religious trying to serve their communities.”

“At my firm, we represent a fair number of priests and religious. And we’re happy to do that because we’re helping the orders and helping priests be able to minister.”

Prayer app leak is latest in series of Vatican website vulnerabilities

A popular prayer app connected to the Vatican, “Click to Pray,” has been leaving user information exposed for months, the most recent in a years-long string of vulnerabilities and hacks for Vatican-related websites.

The app, which is available on both iOS and Android, suffers from an insecure direct object reference (IDOR) vulnerability, cybersecurity news site Dark Reading reported Friday.

As a result, names and email addresses for more than 700,000 users are easily available to any web user, the site said.

The app, which is used by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, is run by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which is a pontifical society entrusted to the Society of Jesus, tasked with “supporting the Holy Father’s evangelizing mission through prayer for a mission of compassion for the world.” It offers daily prayer prompts and opportunities to share prayer intentions with other users.

The site reported that the vulnerability was first noted in January by a hacker who goes by “BobDaHacker” on his blog. BobDaHacker and Dark Reading both reported reaching out to officials at the app and the group that runs it, but said they received no response.

The Vatican’s own website has been targeted repeatedly by hackers in recent years, sometimes connected to political issues.

The group Anonymous took the Vatican website offline briefly in 2012 and 2015, criticizing the Catholic Church’s doctrine and what it called “absurd and anachronistic concepts.”

Another suspected hacking incident took the site down in 2022, after Pope Francis criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was unclear who was responsible for the incident.

In 2020, a report by threat intelligence firm Recorded Future argued that China had been working to hack into Vatican systems ahead of the renewal of the Vatican-China deal on bishop appointments.

Andrew Jenkinson​, group CEO of Cybersec Innovation Partners, said he repeatedly contacted the Vatican in 2020 to highlight inadequacies in the Vatican’s cybersecurity system and to offer to help fix the weaknesses

In 2023, confidential records from the Vatican’s synod on synodality were posted to an unsecured cloud server.

The Vatican’s website crashed again in 2024, with experts saying the incident bore the hallmarks of a cyberattack.

‘Irish parishes have intense hidden vitality’ — Nuncio’s parting verdict on the Irish Church

The outgoing Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland has said he has witnessed “an intense, hidden vitality” in Irish parishes and dioceses especially in the West and the North of Ireland and has “no doubt” it will bear visible fruit in the synodal process and in a resurgence of vocations to the ministerial and religious life.

As he prepares to leave the Diplomatic Service, Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor said his strongest first impression of Ireland had been “the rapid change in Irish society, very different from the one I had known in Dublin 38 years earlier, and particularly with regard to the role of the Catholic Church in public life”.

But he said that contrary to what one might therefore expect, what he witnessed on the ground especially in visiting communities in the West and North of Ireland, was “the generous commitment of so many lay faithful, men and women, to sustaining the life and ministry of the Church in the parishes and dioceses”.  He added: “I can say that I have perceived an intense, hidden vitality which, I have no doubt, will bear visible fruit in the synodal process we are experiencing and in the resurgence of vocations to the ministerial and religious life.”

Ireland was Archbishop Montemayor’s first European posting in a diplomatic career spanning 35 years and, he said, practically every continent. He served in Ethiopia and Thailand, in the Democratic Republic of Congo — where he was “gently asked to retire ‘for my own safety’” — and in Colombia, where Pope Francis entrusted him with supporting the peace process with the National Liberation Army.

A vocation formed at the Faculty of Law in the University of Buenos Aires during “a very violent period in Argentine society”, he said his call was to the ministerial priesthood; the diplomatic service “was not in my plans”, but a proposal from his Archbishop. “God is full of surprises indeed!” he said.

After almost 42 years of priesthood he added he is “much more aware of the spiritual fragility of the human person and, at the same time, of God’s infinite mercy” — a reason, he said, why he intends to spend his retirement helping in parish ministry in his own city for as long as he can.

A possible remodeling of the Vatican Curia places Parolin and Erik Varden at the center of speculation

Speculation about an upcoming overhaul of the Roman Curia is once again intensifying in Vatican circles. 

Although the Holy See has not confirmed any changes and, for the time being, everything remains in the realm of rumors, versions about possible moves in some of the main dicasteries—and even about a potential replacement of Cardinal Pietro Parolin at the head of the Secretariat of State—are circulating with increasing insistence in Rome.

According to Tribune Chrétienne, these conversations also point to the possible arrival at the Curia of new figures who have gained relevance in the government of Leo XIV. Among the names that have been strongly circulating in recent weeks is that of Norwegian Bishop Erik Varden.

Parolin, at the center of the betting

The main focus of speculation is Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State since 2013 and principal collaborator of the last two pontiffs. A potential replacement would represent the most far-reaching change in the Church’s central government since the beginning of Leo XIV’s pontificate.

According to reports published by the French outlet, the Pope is said to be considering the possibility of assembling a team fully aligned with the priorities of his pontificate, a common evolution in the early years of a new papal administration.

A possible replacement of Parolin should not necessarily be interpreted as a personal judgment on his tenure. 

The Italian cardinal remains one of the most respected figures in Vatican diplomacy, although his long mandate has been linked to issues such as the agreement between the Holy See and China on the appointment of bishops or the well-known financial case involving the London building.

Erik Varden, a name gaining weight

Among the possible appointments, the name most frequently mentioned in Vatican circles is that of Monsignor Erik Varden, Bishop of Trondheim, the Catholic territorial prelature located in central Norway.

Former Trappist abbot of the English abbey of Mount St Bernard, a convert from Lutheranism and a recognized author on spirituality, Varden has gained notable international prominence in recent years. This is compounded by the trust Leo XIV placed in him by entrusting him with preaching the Lenten spiritual exercises for the Pope, the cardinals, and the heads of the Curia’s dicasteries—a mission traditionally regarded in Rome as a sign of special esteem from the Pontiff.

According to the same reports, his name is repeatedly mentioned in connection with the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, although there is no official confirmation regarding a specific possible assignment.

Awaiting official decisions

Beyond the names, these speculations suggest that Leo XIV may continue to shape his own governing team. 

However, at present there is no official announcement from the Holy See. 

As is customary in the Vatican, rumors circulating in curial circles only gain value when confirmed through the daily bulletin of the Holy See Press Office.

Pope Leo XIV renews the Apostolic Signatura

The Pope appoints seven new members to the Supreme Tribunal, including two Spanish canonists from Opus Dei and a markedly technical profile. 

The incorporation of the Archbishop of San Francisco, barely three weeks after his statements on the traditional Mass and the FSSPX, is the most eloquent detail of the batch. For his part, Cardinal Müller’s five-year term concludes.

The Holy See Press Office announced this Saturday, July 25, the appointment of seven new members of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest judicial body, presided over by Cardinal Dominique Mamberti. 

Leo XIV has designated the archbishops and bishops Salvatore Joseph Cordileone (San Francisco), Krzysztof Nitkiewicz (Sandomierz, Poland), Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru (secretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts until last June) and Edward M. Lohse (Kalamazoo, United States), along with the priests Eduardo Baura de la Peña (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross), Gianpaolo Montini and the Jesuit Ulrich Rhode (both from the Gregorian).

The renewal comes as the five-year term of the members appointed by Francis in June 2021 expires: Cardinals Müller, Tobin, Grech and Harvey thus conclude their mandate on the tribunal, in an ordinary transition that gives way to a new generation of canonists.

Cordileone, a canonist returning home

The appointment of the Archbishop of San Francisco is, by far, the one with the greatest ecclesial significance. Cordileone is no newcomer to the Palazzo della Cancelleria: a canonist by training, he worked as an official of the Apostolic Signatura itself in the 1990s, before his episcopate, so he knows from within the machinery of the tribunal to which he now returns as a judge.

But it is the context that turns the appointment into a gesture. Cordileone is one of the few diocesan ordinaries in the world who regularly celebrates the traditional Roman rite. On July 2, he conferred the subdiaconate and diaconate on fourteen seminarians of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest in Gricigliano, in ceremonies that were completed the following day by Cardinal Burke—former prefect of the same Signatura—with the ordination of four new priests.

Just days later, the archbishop publicly reacted to the episcopal consecrations of the Society of Saint Pius X in Écône, stating that they reflect “a growing lack of trust that has been building for a long time,” calling for “sincere and honest” dialogue between Rome and the Fraternity and requesting that access to the traditional Mass be facilitated “so that our faithful do not feel obliged to seek spiritual nourishment outside the family in communion with Rome.”

That Leo XIV incorporates him into the Church’s supreme tribunal three weeks after those statements admits few ambiguous readings: far from placing him outside the perimeter of pontifical trust, that discourse has not been an obstacle to entrusting him with a function of legal guarantee at the heart of the Curia. At the most delicate moment in the relationship between Rome and the traditional world since 1988, the Pope seats on the Signatura an archbishop who celebrates the ancient rite, ordains for an ex Ecclesia Dei institute and calls for a review of the liturgical status quo.

What the Signatura is and what Cordileone will be able to vote on

The Apostolic Signatura operates in three areas, in accordance with its Lex Propria. As the supreme judicial tribunal, it judges complaints of nullity against judgments of the Roman Rota and conflicts of jurisdiction between tribunals. As a contentious-administrative tribunal—its most sensitive function—it resolves appeals against singular administrative acts of the dicasteries of the Curia for violation of law in the procedure or in the decision: through this channel pass parish suppressions, expulsions from religious institutes, penal decrees against clerics and, potentially, dicasterial decrees affecting communities linked to the traditional liturgy. It also exercises oversight over the proper administration of justice in all the Church’s tribunals.

The members do not reside in Rome nor govern the dicastery—that corresponds to the cardinal prefect—but they judge in colleges of five that definitively decide contentious appeals and in the plenary that resolves conflicts between dicasteries. That is: Cordileone will vote, case by case, on the legality of acts of the Roman Curia, including those of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Divine Worship when they arrive by way of appeal. A control of legality, not of merit, and from which acts approved by the Pope in specific form are excluded; but a guarantee mechanism of no small importance in the canonical order.

A batch of jurists, not ideologues

The rest of the appointments confirms the imprint: technical rather than political. Juan Ignacio Arrieta, a priest of Opus Dei and doctor from Navarra, has been for nearly twenty years secretary of Legislative Texts and the main architect of the 2021 reform of canonical penal law; his move to the Signatura is almost a natural career move. Eduardo Baura, also of Opus Dei and professor at the Holy Cross, is one of the great specialists in canonical administrative law—precisely the subject matter of the tribunal’s second section—and once signed very critical analyses of the legislative technique of Traditionis custodes.

Gianpaolo Montini, professor at the Gregorian and for years promoter of justice of the Signatura itself, is probably the greatest living expert on the tribunal’s contentious-administrative process. Completing the list are the German Jesuit Ulrich Rhode, professor at the Gregorian; the Polish bishop Krzysztof Nitkiewicz, a canonist and former undersecretary of the then Congregation for the Oriental Churches; and Edward Lohse, bishop of Kalamazoo and apostolic administrator of Steubenville, doctor from the Gregorian with years of service in the Congregation for the Clergy.

There is not a single name on the list identifiable with the progressive wing of the College. Two priests of Opus Dei, a traditional archbishop, three canonists of the classical school and a bishop in the line of the Polish episcopate: the photograph is that of a tribunal reinforced with jurists of profession and classical sensibility.

The replacement of Müller, an ordinary change

Among those concluding their service on the tribunal is Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, prefect emeritus of the Doctrine of the Faith and member since 2021. His departure should not be read in a political key: the mandates of that batch expired by law this year and the German cardinal, who has passed the age of 78, leaves the tribunal together with Cardinals Tobin, Grech and Harvey, of sensibilities quite distinct from one another. It is an ordinary generational transition, which in no way affects the doctrinal weight of Müller, whose voice—as he demonstrated a month ago at the extraordinary consistory—remains one of the most listened to in the College of Cardinals.

With Mamberti at the head and this new composition, the Signatura is configured for a pontificate in which canonical contentious-administrative matters—from appeals by traditional communities to penal proceedings against clerics—promise to be anything but irrelevant.

Rupnik case farce (Opinion)

The Vatican Press Office’s denial of Father Rupnik’s acquittal, accused of sexually abusing at least twenty nuns, raises new questions. 

No one doubts that Father Rupnik, a former Jesuit, has a protection system that may be manipulating a trial about which nothing is known. 

A statement from the Holy See Press Office categorically denied the news published by the blog MessainLatino.it that Father Marko Rupnik had been acquitted in the criminal trial being held in the Vatican, but it at least had the merit of shedding some light on a process that, at this point, smells like a farce.

A case that has never stopped raising suspicions

The famous priest, expelled from the Society of Jesus in 2023, is accused of sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse against at least twenty religious sisters during the 1980s and 1990s. These accusations were deemed credible by the then auxiliary bishop of Rome, Daniele Libanori, also a Jesuit, who launched an investigation into the complaints against Rupnik. 

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith archived the case in October 2022 because the crime had expired. It later emerged that in 2020 the same Congregation had excommunicated Father Rupnik for absolving an accomplice in confession, an excommunication that Pope Francis immediately revoked.

In October 2023, Pope Francis himself was forced, following the victims’ testimonies and under pressure from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, chaired by Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, to lift the statute of limitations and ask the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, now in the hands of the «faithful» Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, to organize the trial.

Three years of delays and opacity

Almost three years have passed and the only thing we have seen so far is the continuation of a system of protection and cover-up of Father Rupnik at the highest level, a situation that was almost a fact during the pontificate of Pope Francis, but which now increasingly tarnishes that of Leo XIV.

The Vatican Press Office offers an official version according to which «reports of any deliberation by the judges following the case of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik are completely unfounded: the evaluation of the case is still ongoing and the court is examining the documentation from the dioceses involved, from the Jesuits, from the interested parties and from the press.» 

This explanation raises new questions and gives the impression of prolonging the delaying tactics seen so far, in the hope that, with the passage of time, attention will diminish and Father Rupnik will emerge unscathed.

Broken promises and a trial that never arrives

After the reopening of the Rupnik case in October 2023, in March 2024 the secretary of the disciplinary section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, stated that the investigation was «delicate,» but was in a «fairly advanced stage.» 

A year later, in March 2025, a Vatican source claimed that Rupnik would be tried for the crimes of «spiritual abuse» and «false mysticism,» and that a verdict was expected «in the not too distant future.»

In January 2025, Cardinal Fernández had downplayed the seriousness of the Rupnik scandal by stating, regarding the lengthy investigation, that there are «many other cases, some perhaps more serious but less well known.» 

Without specifying which cases he was referring to, he added that «the dicastery has concluded the information-gathering phase, which was carried out in various places, and has conducted an initial analysis. We are already working to establish an independent tribunal that will proceed to the final phase of the criminal process.»

In July 2025, Fernández finally announced that the five judges in the Rupnik case had been selected, although their official appointment would still be delayed until October 2025. 

The names of these judges and the criteria followed for their appointment are unknown, demonstrating an opacity and lack of transparency that once again contradicts the repeated statements about the seriousness with which the Church claims to address the fight against abuse.

Leo XIV inherits an unresolved case

On November 4, Pope Leo XIV, responding to a question about the Rupnik case, asked for patience because «judicial processes take time. I know it is very difficult to ask victims for patience, but the Church must respect the rights of all people.»

We do not know if he would repeat the same words today, almost nine months later. Given the events, everything suggests that the system of cover-up and favoritism involving several prelates remains in force. 

The Vatican Press Office’s statement sounds like a mockery, and the absolute secrecy—including the names of the judges—under which this trial is reportedly being conducted only fuels suspicions.

Perhaps the news of the acquittal is not true, but, considering how things have gone so far, it would not be surprising if the case ended that way.

Church of England safeguarding progress being resisted at high level, says INEQE

SIGNIFICANT progress in church safeguarding is being undermined by resistance from senior officers, INEQE, the company auditing safeguarding in every diocese and cathedral, has said.

INEQE said in its 2025 audit that the Church of England was experiencing a “dangerous” period of institutional “drift” regarding future safeguarding structures.

The company also said that unprecedented engagement from more than 10,000 contributors showed “a maturing safeguarding culture, though critical structural inhibitors remain at the senior level”.

The findings are set out in INEQE’s 2025 Annual Report on the Independent Safeguarding Audits of Church of England Dioceses and Cathedrals, alongside two companion reports, Chorister Safeguarding and Victim and Survivor Engagement.

The audit highlighted “tangible” improvements in safeguarding, increasingly understood as a “gospel and theological imperative” rather than as merely an administrative requirement. The report also speaks of growing confidence among individuals in raising concerns without fear of reprisal.

Meanwhile, progress has been made in safer recruitment and chorister well-being. Old models prioritising musical performance have been replaced by more thoughtful, “child-centred” decision-making, INEQE says.

“Supervision structures are stronger, communication with schools is more formalised in many settings, and there is increasing confidence in recognising that safeguarding and musical excellence are not competing priorities but mutually reinforcing responsibilities,” the chorister safeguarding report says.

But progress overall is being stalled, not by senior clergy, but by a “small group of influential senior officers at the diocesan level and certain individuals within the national Church”, INEQE suggests.

Further, there is a readiness among these individuals to “hide behind exceptionalism, Canon Law, tradition, and procedural defensiveness” to resist operationally independent safeguarding structures, such as the establishment of a Director of Safeguarding.

The report also speaks of the delay of vital recommendations. “Ignoring evidence-based recommendations invites risk”.

Jim Gamble, the lead auditor, said: “This annual report draws together two years of audit evidence and its message is clear — the Church is on a positive trajectory. Yet, once again, we publish at a time of significant uncertainty about the future structures of the Church of England.

“At the time of our 2024 report, the intention was to implement the recommendations of Alexis Jay’s Future of Church Safeguarding review. That has since been overtaken by the Safeguarding Structures Programme, whose outcome and direction remain, at the time of writing, unclear. This must be addressed urgently.

“The Church needs to set out the evidence that underpins its chosen path and a firm timeline for moving beyond the current ambiguity. Real progress has been made — the last thing the wider Church now needs is drift. Whatever comes next must command the confidence of all stakeholders and that confidence will be built on evidence, clarity, and a meaningful timeline.”

INEQE audits have previously identified overwork in diocesan safeguarding offices and called for greater capacity. The recent audit of the NST recommended the establishment of specialist HR capacity to advise on “ensuring conduct issues are clearly separated from safeguarding processes”.

In recent months, the Charity Commission has taken a growing interest in the Church’s approach to safeguarding. In November, it said that implementation of reform was being pursued with “insufficient urgency and pace” and the Commission raised a concern about definitions.

In January, it censured the dioceses of Liverpool and Chelmsford for their handling of safeguarding allegations against the former Bishop of Liverpool Dr John Perumbalath.

Vatican Weighing Papal Trip to Ukraine

The Vatican will study the conditions needed for a possible trip by Pope Leo XIV to Ukraine, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher said following a six-day pastoral and diplomatic mission to the war-torn country.

Gallagher, the Holy See’s secretary for relations with states and international organizations, said the possibility of a papal visit was among the questions he heard most frequently during his stay.

“Almost everyone I met asked me that question. My answer is very simple. The Holy Father takes this invitation very seriously,” Gallagher told Vatican Media in Kraków, Poland, before returning to Rome.

“For our part, we will continue to study the conditions necessary to determine the right time and the most appropriate way for such a visit to bear the greatest possible fruit for Ukraine and for peace in the world,” he said.

Gallagher spent six days in Ukraine, which has been at war since 2014 and has endured Russia’s full-scale invasion since February 2022. He held political, institutional, and Church meetings and took part in several pastoral events.

He met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on July 20. Zelenskyy expressed gratitude for the Holy See’s continuing support for Ukraine amid the war with Russia.

The principal purpose of Gallagher’s visit was to participate in celebrations marking the 35th anniversary of the restoration of the Latin Catholic Church’s structures at the Marian shrine of Berdychiv. Thousands of faithful attended the celebrations July 19.

Gallagher said Ukrainian authorities had expressed appreciation for the Holy See’s support.

“In our meetings with the authorities, we encountered profound gratitude for the Holy Father’s appeals and his words, and that is a source of encouragement for us,” he said.

“They feel supported by the closeness shown first by Pope Francis and now by Pope Leo. This encourages the Holy See to renew its commitment to dialogue with the international community and with the Russian authorities, and to continue its humanitarian efforts, such as the mission entrusted to Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, who continues working for the return of children, prisoners, and civilians.”

Pope Leo XIV has received several official invitations to visit Ukraine. Zelenskyy renewed the invitation during a conversation with the pope on Good Friday.

During that exchange, Pope Leo expressed his closeness to the Ukrainian people amid the suffering caused by the war and emphasized the urgency of ensuring humanitarian assistance. He also expressed his hope for an end to hostilities and a just and lasting peace with Russia.

A just and lasting peace

Asked about the prospects for a ceasefire, Gallagher said he had seen a strong willingness on the Ukrainian side to work toward that goal.

“During these days I have seen a strong determination on the Ukrainian side to work towards that goal. It is difficult for me to say whether this can be achieved in the immediate future, but we must continue to work in that direction,” he said.

“At the same time, as we saw at the shrine of Berdychiv — and as the history of this remarkable place of Marian devotion reminds us, renowned for many reported healings — we should never rule out the possibility of a miracle.”

Gallagher also reflected on what he had witnessed during the mission.

“For me, this has been a profoundly positive experience. Beyond the logistical effort and the long journey required to reach Ukraine, it has allowed me to touch the reality of today’s world with my own hands,” he said.

“We must remember that not everyone lives as we do in Italy or in my native England. There is a dark and troubling reality in our world today. We must not give in. In our own way, we too are called to strive, doing our part with the means available to us, in order to build peace.”

Zuppi’s humanitarian mission

Gallagher’s visit followed Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi’s second mission to Ukraine as Pope Leo XIV’s special envoy.

The archbishop of Bologna completed four days of meetings in Lviv and Kyiv focused on prisoner exchanges, the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Zuppi met civil and religious authorities, officials responsible for prisoner exchanges and relatives of military personnel and civilians being held in Russia.

Among his principal meetings was an encounter with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who thanked the Holy See for its humanitarian efforts and requested its support in achieving a comprehensive and lasting peace.

Sybiha also raised Kyiv’s concerns about civilians detained in Russian territory and called for a humanitarian corridor to assist thousands of people in the Russian-occupied communities of Oleshky and Hola Prystan in the Kherson region.

Prisoners were a central focus of the mission. Proposals discussed included a possible comprehensive exchange of prisoners of war, continued efforts to locate missing people, and measures to facilitate the return of civilians.

The parties also discussed the situation of Ukrainian children taken illegally to Russia, an issue in which the Holy See has been involved for years through diplomatic and humanitarian initiatives.

Another topic was the protection of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that has recently been damaged amid attacks connected to the war. Ukrainian authorities consider its preservation and restoration a priority.

Monks punished after consecrating bishop without Pope's approval

A group of rebel monks in Orkney is being punished by the Catholic church after appointing a bishop without the approval of the Pope.

The traditionalist Order, the Sons of the Holy Redeemer, defied the Vatican to hold the consecration ceremony of its leader, Father Michael Mary, at their monastery on Papa Stronsay on Saturday.

In a statement, the diocese of Aberdeen said the monks had clearly broken with the church and were now removed from it.

The Bishop of Aberdeen is instructing his parishioners to have no dealings with the Order and its leader has been excommunicated.

In a statement, Hugh Gilbert OSB said the Diocese had completed a "canonical process and pronounced its judgement".

"Regrettably, I find Fr Michael Mary guilty of the charges brought against him, most notably that of schism," he said.

"He is therefore declared to be excommunicated, dismissed from ecclesiastical office, and prohibited from the celebration of Mass or the other sacraments."

"In the event of a sincere change of heart on his part and the making of reparation, these penalties may be lifted," he added.

The monks are a Transalpine Redemptorist community of Catholic traditionalists who deny the legitimacy of Pope Leo XIV and his predecessors for the last 60 years.

The consecration ceremony attracted international attention through the Order's online following among traditionalist Catholics across the world, especially in the Americas.

Christian Brothers abuse victims to get ‘full’ compensation in backdown after controversial property sales

The entity gifted vast property holdings by the Christian Brothers has agreed to help compensate abuse survivors in full, in a stunning reversal after weeks of public pressure.

The Christian Brothers, a Catholic order with a long history of clergy abuse, last month announced it was going broke and could not afford to meet civil claims from abuse survivors.

It instead proposed a scheme to sell off 36 properties, worth about $217m, and split the proceeds between a range of creditors, including survivors, who were estimated to be owed $774m.

The announcement prompted significant backlash and led to scrutiny of property dealings between the Christian Brothers and a related entity, the Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA). That entity was created in 2007 to assume control of former Christian Brothers schools.

Over a decade, the Christian Brothers gifted vastly lucrative property holdings – worth hundreds of millions of dollars – to EREA for amounts of $1. Survivors were told those properties were off-limits and would not be sold to meet their compensation claims.

EREA had previously refused to replace the Christian Brothers as the defendant to court claims. Survivors had been in the process of attempting to get a court order to force EREA to do so.

But on Friday, both entities issued statements indicating that Edmund Rice had agreed to help “compensate victims and survivors of historical abuse claims against the Christian Brothers in full”.

Dr Stephen Brown, chair of the Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia, said the organisation was “committed to supporting those who have suffered abuse”.

“We support the revised scheme because it is simply the right thing to do for victims and survivors to provide them a just and sustainable pathway,” he said.

“This decision will also support the long-term sustainability of the educational ministry, including more than 44,000 students entrusted to EREA’s stewardship.”

The new proposal means that the Christian Brothers’ remaining 36 properties will be sold off to pay survivors who have “outstanding settlements or judgements, including claims to legal costs”.

Others who have claims that “are not yet crystallised” will be able to sue EREA or claim redress from them through the government-run national redress scheme. The organisation will consent to replacing the Christian Brothers as a defendant in such cases.

A statement from the Christian Brothers said this meant that “not only will current claimants with settlements or judgments be paid in full, but EREA will assume responsibility and liability for all current and future legal proceedings as well as for claims before the national redress scheme”.

The federal social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, welcomed Friday’s announcement but said survivors should never have been put in such a position.

“The past few weeks of uncertainty have been difficult for victim survivors of abuse in institutions run by the Christian Brothers,” she said.

“They should never have been put in the position of wondering whether their claims would be met. We now expect that EREA, like all redress scheme participants, will act in good faith to resolve all current and future redress matters concerning them or the Christian Brothers.”

Rightside Legal, which represents dozens of people with claims against the Christian Brothers, said the backdown was a significant win for its clients.

“Make no mistake: survivors fought for this success,” said Grace Wilson, a partner at the firm.

“Edmund Rice are folding because the law is against them. Other orders should take note: transferring their wealth away will not protect them from their legal or moral obligations.”

The two entities will need up to two months to determine the details of the new proposal. It will then put the proposed scheme to a vote by creditors. It will also require court approval.

“EREA is committed to supporting those who have suffered abuse, so today we are seeking to provide reassurance that we will step in to address future funding shortfalls,” Brown said.

“EREA touchstones are justice, solidarity and inclusive community and we are committed to ensuring the victim-survivors’ journey of healing continues.”

Earlier this month, Guardian Australia revealed that the Christian Brothers had kept nine brothers convicted of child sexual abuse within the religious order. It did so because it said it had a “Gospel imperative” to “care for all Brothers” and “the needy”.

Members of the order receive free housing and living and entertainment expenses, courtesy of the Christian Brothers.

The Guardian also revealed that the order was using its property portfolio to house two brothers with horrific histories of child sexual abuse, including one brother who preyed on orphans and another who was kept in teaching positions for almost three decades after senior officials became aware of his offending.

Former Christian Brother ‘likely to die in prison’ after being jailed for five years

A former Christian Brother already in prison for sexually abusing school pupils in Kilkenny in the 1970s is “likely to die in prison”, a judge said on Friday, as he sentenced him to five years for sexual assaults on nine boys in a primary school in Portarlington in the 1980s.

Liam Coughlan (90), a former teacher and principal of the primary school on Patrick Street, Portarlington, Co Offaly, was found guilty earlier this month to 31 counts of indecent assault on nine former pupils in the 1980s.

Coughlan created a “false, distorted and evil reality” in the school, the president of the Circuit Court, Judge Keenan Johnson, said after noting evidence that Coughlan would bring boys to the front of his class on an almost daily basis and sexually interfere with them while continuing to address the classroom.

He commended the victims who had come forward to the gardaí and said their victim impact statements were a “powerful insight” into the lifelong damage done to people who suffer childhood sexual abuse.

The trial heard the abuse happened mostly in the classroom but also elsewhere inside and outside the school, that the boys were mostly aged between 11 and 13 years at the time, and that many of the boys in the classes taught by Coughlan during the period concerned were subjected to abuse.

“Almost a whole generation of all Catholic boys from Portarlington went through this,” one of the victims said in a victim impact statement to the Circuit Criminal Court in Portlaoise on Friday.

“Br Coughlan poisoned a whole town’s young male population,” the man said.

“You could see the evidence on nights out in the town years later with the levels of violence and aggression in pubs and on the streets,” he said.

The man said he had been doing well socially, academically, and in sport up to the age of ten, but after he was abused by Coughlan he became introverted and fearful.

Coughlan, he said, had taken the potential of a “beautiful, young and good kid” and “ripped it to shreds”.

Evidence of the effect of Coughlan’s crimes, he said, could be seen “in the number of suicides by former students of Br Coughlan.”

In their victim impact statements, the men outlined how they had suffered insecurity, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and difficulties with personal relationships, in the decades since the abuse.

One man, reading his statement from the witness box while Coughlan, who is receiving palliative care in Mountjoy Prison, listened by way of video-link, said he would never know what his life would have been like if the abuse had not occurred.

“I fear public embarrassment and being shamed in public,” the man said. “I often have the feeling that I have done something wrong when I haven’t.”

Coughlan had “acted with impunity for so long”, the man said. “Did the various authorities have no inkling that this was happening?”

The shame associated with what had happened to him, he said, rests with Coughlan, the Christian Brothers, the Catholic Church and the Department of Education “whose oversight and inspection processes failed me by leaving this perpetrator in situ in charge of children for decades.”

Coughlan was jailed in 2023 for indecently assaulting 24 former pupils at the CBS primary school on Stephen Street, Kilkenny, during the 1970s, and was due to be released in February 2027. His new sentence starts from Friday.

Barrister Maurice Coffey, instructed by Vallely Legal, told the judge his client now accepted the jury’s verdict and, at this “very late stage in the day”, wanted to apologise.

During the trial, Det Elaine Conlon told the prosecuting counsel William Fennelly that, when interviewed, Coughlan denied the charges and said the complainants were “all liars”.

She said some former Portarlington pupils did not want to make statements saying they had “put that behind them”.

In his judgment, Keenan referred to the obstructive legal strategy currently being adopted by the Christian Brothers in the civil courts in cases where victims of childhood sexual abuse are seeking damages. A number of the cases involve damages being sought arising from abuse by Coughlan.

The “morally bankrupt and totally unfair” approach being taken, he said, appeared to be designed the congregation’s assets. However, he said, he was not taking this into consideration when sentencing Coughlan.

How free is the pope to choose German bishops?

Archbishop Hubertus van Megen formally took up the role of apostolic nuncio in Germany Thursday, when he presented his credentials to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.

Among the Dutch archbishop’s most important responsibilities will be advising Pope Leo XIV on the selection of new German bishops when vacancies arise.

Diocesan bishops who will reach the standard retirement age of 75 in the coming years include Bishop Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg (74), Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers of Dresden-Meissen (73), Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising (72), Bishop Wolfgang Ipolt of Görlitz (72), and Archbishop Heiner Koch of Berlin (72).

But van Megen will be well aware that the pope faces a distinct set of constraints when it comes to appointing their successors.

What rules govern the nomination of the country’s bishops? And how free does this leave the pope to select his favored candidates? 

What rules govern appointments?

When the vast majority of the world’s dioceses fall vacant, the pope is free to appoint his chosen candidate directly.

This is expressed in Canon 377 §1 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which says that “the Supreme Pontiff freely appoints bishops or confirms those legitimately elected.”

But the appointment process is not always so straightforward. In China, for example, the pope has less room for maneuver, if he wants to balance his appointment prerogative with an effort to normalize the state of the Church in the country.

Announcing a new episcopal appointment in the country this week, the Vatican noted that the pope had appointed the bishop after approving his candidature within the framework of the 2018 provisional agreement between the Holy See and the Chinese government. The agreement’s exact terms have never been published, making it difficult to know precisely how candidates are nominated.

This atypical arrangement, in which a state plays a notable role in the choice of bishops, has historical precedents. For example, the Concordat of 1801 gave Napoleon the right to nominate French bishops, while the pope canonically appointed them.

Exceptional arrangements also emerged in Germany for historical reasons connected with the country’s relatively late emergence as a unified nation-state.

Before the country’s unification in 1871, individual German states signed concordats, or formal agreements, with the Holy See that governed bishops’ appointments. Some of these arrangements survived unification and were later modified by new concordats, leaving Germany with a patchwork of nomination procedures.

The three main concordat arrangements governing diocesan episcopal appointments today are the Bavarian Concordat (1924), the Prussian Concordat (1929), and the Baden Concordat (1932). It’s worth noting that these apply to the nomination of diocesan ordinaries, rather than auxiliary bishops, who are appointed through the standard process.

The Bavarian Concordat covers eight dioceses. These are Bamberg, Würzburg, Eichstätt, Passau, Regensburg, Augsburg, and Munich and Freising — all situated in the southern state of Bavaria — and Speyer, which is located in the Rhineland-Palatinate state, but for historical reasons is associated with Bavaria.

Under the Bavarian Concordat, diocesan bishops and cathedral chapters are required to submit lists of potential new bishops to the Holy See every three years, regardless of whether there is a vacancy. When a bishop resigns, the cathedral chapter submits its recommendations to the Holy See, which selects a candidate according to the concordat’s procedures.

If he observes the terms of the concordat, the pope therefore does not have the same freedom of appointment in Bavaria that he has in most dioceses worldwide. Instead, the text delineates that he must choose from among candidates presented through the concordat process.

Once the pope has made his choice, the Bavarian state government is informed of the decision and has a right to object to an appointment on political grounds before the appointment is formally announced.

The Prussian Concordat applies in 15 dioceses — Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Paderborn, Aachen, Erfurt, Essen, Fulda, Görlitz, Hildesheim, Limburg, Magdeburg, Münster, Trier, and Osnabrück — making it the most widespread arrangement in Germany.

When a diocese falls vacant, the cathedral chapter presents a list of candidates to the Holy See. Rome reviews the list and sends a list of three names to the chapter, which chooses one. The chapter communicates the election result to the state government, which has the right to raise political objections to the chosen candidate. The pope then confirms the election. Minor variations can occur in the process within some dioceses.

The Baden Concordat applies to just four dioceses: Freiburg, Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Mainz, and Dresden-Meissen.

It closely resembles the procedure of the Prussian Concordat, in which the cathedral chapter elects a candidate from a list of three sent by Rome, but with some procedural differences.

In recent years, there has been a concerted push to increase the laity’s role in German episcopal appointments, linked to the country’s controversial synodal way.

Church law already allows lay people to participate in a limited way. Canon 377 §3 says that apostolic nuncios — the pope’s ambassadors — can seek the opinions of “laity outstanding in wisdom” on potential candidates.

A 2022 synodal way resolution called on cathedral chapters to work with an elected body representing “the entire people of God in the diocese” to determine a list of suitable candidates that the chapter sends to the Vatican.

But dioceses have found it difficult to enact the resolution because appointment processes are strictly governed by concordats and cannot be changed unilaterally.

How constrained is the pope?

Overall, the pope has a slightly freer hand in the appointment of bishops to eight out of Germany’s 27 dioceses (the Bavarian ones), but faces a significantly restricted choice in the remaining 19 dioceses (the Prussian and Baden ones).

This is important to take into account in any discussion of whether Pope Leo XIV could overhaul the German hierarchy, if he so wished.

If that were his intention — and he has given no obvious indication that it is — he would likely face considerable local resistance. This point is speculative, but there are precedents from the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI that are worth considering.

The Polish pope, for example, appointed the conservative-minded Wolfgang Haas as the coadjutor bishop of Chur in 1988, effectively bypassing the Swiss diocese’s normal episcopal election procedure in which the cathedral chapter plays a pivotal role. But Hass encountered so much opposition that in 1997 he was put in charge of the newly created Archdiocese of Vaduz in Liechtenstein.

In 2009, Benedict XVI appointed Fr. Gerhard Maria Wagner, another temperamentally conservative figure, as an auxiliary bishop of Linz, Austria. Although no cathedral election procedure applied to the appointment, it raised local hackles because Wagner was not among the candidates proposed by the Linz diocese. Following protests by priests and lay people, Wagner asked the German pope to withdraw the appointment, and he accepted the request.

These two cases arguably highlight the difficulties of going against the grain of local ecclesial culture in the German-speaking world.

If Pope Leo wished to alter the course of German Catholicism, episcopal nominations alone would probably not be sufficient. After all, appointments are downstream from the ecclesial culture that produces future bishops. Any lasting change would likely depend on reshaping the culture itself, perhaps by supporting grassroots movements that offer an alternative to the now-dominant synodal way.

Concern grows over whereabouts of elderly Bishop detained in Nicaragua

Supporters of an 80 year old Nicaraguan bishop who was arrested and detained on 29 June say they’re concerned over his whereabouts.

Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata Guevara, who is retired, was arrested after offering prayers for the persecuted church at a Mass.  Authorities say he was returned home and placed under house arrest on 4 July.

However, an exiled Nicaraguan lawyer Martha Patricia Molina said reports he had returned home were unproven. She told Spanish news agency ACI Prensa that the “forced disappearance of Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata is a serious matter; this constitutes a crime against humanity committed by agents of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship. He has been missing for 19 days, and the co-dictators have not made any further statements on the matter”.

There are concerns over Bishop Juan’s health as he has a pacemaker and has previously survived cancer. Molina added: “No one in his circle has any news of him, and concern among the laity and the Catholic Church in general is even greater due to the medical conditions he suffers from, conditions that are almost certainly not being treated properly.”

At the time of Bishop Juan’s arrest, persecution watchdog Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said that during the Mass he had mentioned the cases of prominent religious leaders such as Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, who was forced into exile in 2024, and Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón, who has been under house arrest for the last two years.

It is believed that his statements were reported by individuals aligned with the government. CSW sources have consistently reported the presence of spies in churches who record homilies and prayers and report them to the National Police.

Rebel order of Orkney monks consecrate new bishop without Pope's permission

An order of Catholic monks in Orkney has consecrated a bishop without the blessing of the Pope.

The diocese of Aberdeen has warned the monks they are breaking the unity of the Church. The Order is already being investigated by the Vatican.

The Sons of the Holy Redeemer own the island of Papa Stronsay which is home to their Golgotha monastery.

The order's superior, Father Michael Mary, was consecrated as a bishop in a four-hour long ceremony which was streamed online on Saturday.

The monks are a Transalpine Redemptorist community of Catholic traditionalists who deny the legitimacy of Pope Leo XIV and his predecessors for the last 60 years.

The order is part of the diocese of Aberdeen, which has already condemned the consecration as an "act of schism".

In a pastoral letter to all parishes in the diocese, the Bishop of Aberdeen, the Rt Rev Hugh Gilbert, described the event as "spiritual suicide" for those who take part.

The ceremony has attracted international attention through the Order's online following among traditionalist Catholics across the world, especially in the Americas.

"Father Michael Mary is being consecrated as a bishop without a Papal mandate. This is incredibly significant within the Catholic Church because all bishops should have the approval of the Pope," said Luke Coppen, senior commentator with US Catholic website, The Pillar.

"The lack of this permission means the ceremony will constitute a formal break with the communion of the Catholic Church."

Coppen believes the order is willing to break with the Diocese of Aberdeen and the Vatican to secure its own long-term future.

He told BBC Radio Scotland's Around Orkney: "I think the community is seeking to perpetuate itself in the coming decades and it's very hard to do that without a bishop.

"Bishops play the important role of ordaining priests and confirming young Catholics in the faith.

"A bishop also gives them an independent source of continuity outside of Rome, because Rome is looking very carefully at this community and I think will not approve further ordinations within it."

Father Michael Mary is an inspirational figure among conservative traditionalists who want to overturn the changes to Catholic worship implemented following the Second Vatican Council 60 years ago.

In a recent blog, the 73-year-old monk described the present-day Catholic Church as a "new religion" intent on "the obliteration of the Latin Mass, the Catechism and the Sacraments of the True Church."

Stephen Kokx, editor-in-chief of Integrity magazine, and an American Catholic traditionalist commentator, has interviewed Father Michael Mary and other members of the order.

He believes the monks have an important role as a thorn in the side of "the squatters who currently occupy positions of influence in the Vatican".

Speaking of the likely sanctions the monks are now facing from the Vatican, he said: "If they are excommunicated, they should consider it a mark of honour."

The monastery suffered tragedy in April when 24-year-old Justin Evans, also known as Brother Ignatius, went missing. His body was later recovered from the sea.

Secrecy over sex abuse permeates traditionalist Catholic group whose leaders were excommunicated by Pope Leo

A “fraternity” of priests whose leaders recently were excommunicated by Pope Leo XIV — and that maintains a presence in the Chicago area with a church in Oak Park and a priory on the Northwest Side — fashions itself as an authentic practitioner of Catholicism.

But the Society of St. Pius X, perhaps known best for embracing the old Latin mass and other practices and beliefs often described as traditionalist or conservative, shares an unfortunate characteristic with many of the more mainstream Catholic religious orders: a history of accusations of child sexual abuse.

While some of the troubles are known publicly — including in France, where a priest from the society was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023 for sexual misconduct against 27 minors — it’s unclear how widespread they’ve been within the international organization, often referred to as SSPX.

The group’s website decries the scourge of sexual abuse, saying it’s “concerned with the safety of all those who are members and guests of our various organizations and institutions. We are completely committed to protecting the safety of everyone who attends our chapels, schools, camps, outings or events. Abuse of any kind is never to be tolerated under any circumstance.”

But the SSPX website doesn’t maintain a public list of its members in the United States deemed to have been credibly accused of sexual abuse, which many Catholic religious orders in good standing have done, from the Augustinians, to which Pope Leo belongs, to the Carmelites, Dominicans and Jesuits, to which the late Pope Francis belonged.

SSPX leaders wouldn’t provide names or a tally of their alleged offenders when asked by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Many victims of the church’s decades-old abuse crisis say they support public disclosure of credibly accused clergy through church-based sex offender registries as a means of healing and of ensuring better accountability from the church that was once much more mired in secrecy on this subject.

But popes have left the handling of such disclosures up to individual dioceses, which are church jurisdictions helmed by a bishop and based on geography, and individual religious orders, which usually follow in the mold of a saint and have their own leaders. SSPX is not technically a religious order — and even before the latest crisis it carried an “irregular” status within the broader church — but has similarities.

Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, who has studied the group, says: “They have had some cases of sex abuses but not more than other Catholic groups. Unlike in the mainline Roman Catholic Church, discussing sex abuse is not one of their priorities.”

SSPX leaders gave the Sun-Times a written statement saying it “does not give responses to the media on these questions. In addition to the canonical examination to which these cases are subject, as in any ecclesiastical society, the Society of Saint Pius X seeks to entrust all accusations on this subject exclusively to the judicial authorities, in accordance with the requirements of local legislation.”

“The Society of Saint Pius X cooperates fully with all judicial investigations, leaving it to the competent authorities to evaluate in detail the circumstances of each case and to pronounce judgment in accordance with the laws in force. In particular, the Society of Saint Pius X relies on them to evaluate the possible responsibilities of each person (physical or institutional), to draw the judicial consequences, and to ensure they are applied.”

A better understanding of accusations facing SSPX priests in the U.S. could still be coming. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation released a report on child sexual abuse in local Catholic dioceses in 2023, and indicated it was still looking into accusations involving SSPX, as is the Kansas attorney general.

How big is the Society of St. Pius X?

The U.S. headquarters for SSPX — which counts about 700 priests and an estimated 600,000 followers around the world — is in Missouri, and the group also oversees a large congregation in Kansas.

A 2023 Illinois attorney general report on abusive Catholic clergy across the state didn’t mention SSPX.

The group runs a boarding school for boys in downstate Illinois, just south of Danville. It also oversees the Our Lady Immaculate Church at 410 W. Washington Blvd. in Oak Park, which the group bought in the early 1990s from a Presbyterian congregation. The group also has a priory in the Dunning neighborhood in Chicago in a building once owned by an order of nuns adjacent to St. Priscilla Parish.

Locally, a former SSPX priest named William T. Welsh, who at least until recently had been living in the south suburbs, was the subject of an unusual federal court case in Chicago that began in 2020, as the government of Australia sought to have him extradited to face child sex charges.

An American, Welsh once ministered in Australia for SSPX, and authorities there charged him with 11 counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency with a person under 16 years, court records show.

“Welsh was ordained a Catholic priest on 1 December 1985,” court records show. “In 1985 he was assigned as a collaborator in Hampton, Australia, until August 1986. After spending some time in different locations, Welsh was assigned as a prior in Hampton from January 1986 until July 1993.”

While in that suburb of Melbourne, he repeatedly sexually assaulted a female parishioner when she was between 12 and 15 years old, including at times on the church property, authorities allege.

The case was dropped in 2022 after Welsh’s attorney argued his health was too poor for extradition.

When SSPX learned of the Welsh allegations

Before that happened, court records show that a longtime SSPX leader based in Switzerland, Bishop Bernard Fellay, gave Australian police a statement saying the group became aware of abuse allegations made by an accuser against Welsh “some years after the alleged events.”

“During 2006, the church confronted Welsh about [NAME REDACTED] allegations,” according to a summary of Fellay’s statement in court records. “He met with Welsh in New Mexico, in the United States. Welsh denied the allegations that he sexually abused [NAME REDACTED.]”

“He does not have any note of his conversation with Welsh at that time.”

Church records shared with police say Welsh “took a sabbatical and left his post” in 1995 “without the agreement of his superiors.”

An SSPX spokesman says Welsh “left the Society in 1996 and that the authorities in Australia would be the ones to answer details regarding their side of this case.”

They either could not be reached or declined comment.

It’s unclear whether Fellay or anyone from SSPX went to police about Welsh, and if so, when. Court records say: “This case was reported to police on 1 October 2013.”

Another SSPX priest, the Rev. Francis Ockerse, told Australian police that in 1991 he had dinner with an accuser who “made a vague allegation of sexual misconduct by Welsh and then promptly left the room without elaborating,” court records say.

Ockerse “did not pursue the matter because he did not have sufficient evidence about the allegation. He does not recall the exact words used in the conversation and he did not speak with [NAME REDACTED] again. The conversation was never recorded because there seemed no reason to record it.”

“He forgot about the conversation until he was notified of a letter [NAME REDACTED] wrote in 2013 to Bishop Fellay.”

The accuser’s account of the conversation with Ockerse was more direct, according to court records that say: “The first person that she told about Welsh’s abuse” was Ockerse when she was 18 or 19 in the early 1990s.

Ockerse “was lecturing [NAME REDACTED] in the family home about not attending church” when the accuser got “so angry that she told him that the reason she was not attending church was because Welsh had abused her.”

The young woman “then walked out, and Ockerse said nothing,” and “nothing was ever done about this.” At least until 2007, when she said she was asked by another priest to give a “deposition” in an effort to “defrock” Welsh, court records show.

Around 2008, victim’s parents learn of the abuse

In or about 2008 “she told her parents about the abuse by Welsh,” and they all spoke with Fellay and another SSPX leader in 2010 to discuss Welsh’s misconduct, records show.

The society has bristled at any suggestion that it’s covered up child sex abuse, even as some victims and other critics have portrayed that as standard practice. U.S. and European news reports in 2017 say current and former SSPX priests may have remained in public ministry overseas despite sex abuse claims.

The statement released by the society says that, “as a rule,” it “addresses every case of abuse brought to its attention. No case is simply concealed. On the contrary, we strongly encourage everyone to inform the judicial authorities and the Society of any cases of which they are aware.”

While many of the sex abuse allegations that arise these days in the broader church involve alleged misconduct that’s decades old, a number of complaints involving SSPX have been relatively contemporary — with one of its priests convicted in 2023 of molesting a girl in Minnesota.

A department of the Vatican — the church’s headquarters within Rome that’s overseen by Pope Leo — issued a decree earlier this month declaring that SSPX leaders, including Fellay, were excommunicated after they consecrated bishops without his authorization in an “act of a schismatic nature.”

The group “claims it was compelled to ordain new bishops July 1 in Ecône, Switzerland, in order to guarantee to celebrate what they consider the true Mass,” according to a recent Catholic News Service article.

The reasoning from the group is “we had to do this for the sacramental needs of the faithful,” the SSPX spokesman said.

SSPX has since appealed the excommunication to the Vatican and portrayed the penalty as not only “unjust” but also flawed under the church’s own rules. The society argues the sanction is, or should be, on pause while the appeal is ongoing.

Top church officials didn’t return calls.

Fellay was involved in a similar controversy in 1988 when he and several others were made bishops by the society’s founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, without authorization from then-Pope John Paul II, who in turn excommunicated them all.

In an attempt to heal the rift with the group in 2009, then-Pope Benedict XVI reversed the excommunications.

But there was an uproar when it emerged that one of the new bishops, Richard Williamson, had made remarks questioning the existence of gas chambers in the Holocaust — among the reasons the Southern Poverty Law Center and others have described SSPX as antisemitic.

Fellay, at the time the society’s superior general, said Williamson’s remarks didn’t reflect the group’s teachings, and Williamson was removed from his position with a seminary. Williamson was expelled from SSPX in 2012.

The spokesperson for the society says antisemitism is inconsistent with being Catholic and is in no way part of the SSPX belief system.

SSPX’s beginnings

The society was formed in the early 1970s in the wake of the Vatican II Council of the 1960s that was aimed at modernizing the worldwide church.

Among the reforms: Mass was allowed to be offered in local languages, rather than strictly Latin as had been the practice for hundreds of years.

The priests in the liturgy also began facing the congregation, rather than with their backs to the pews.

And the council softened its teachings on — and relations with — other religions, including the Jewish faith that, over centuries, was often demonized by the church.

A Catholic News Service article says: “There are two notable texts from Vatican II that focus on religious liberty, ‘Dignitatis Humanae,’ which recognizes a civil right to religious freedom, and ‘Nostra Aetate,’ which encourages dialogue with non-Christian religions while recognizing elements of truth and holiness within them.”

SSPX not only continues to celebrate the traditional Latin liturgy, it “rejects modernity as the fruit of Satan’s work” and regards “non-Catholic religions as ‘the work of the Devil,’ with which dialogue is both sinful and futile,” Introvigne says.

In contrast, Chicago’s top Catholic cleric, Cardinal Blase Cupich, has said Vatican II was instrumental in his decision to become a priest.

“Instead of a church that is closed in on itself, a self-referential church that is fearful of the world and modernity, we are to read the signs of the times and include all of humanity in our mission,” Cupich said in a homily last year, according to the Chicago Catholic newspaper.

“It is a posture that puts aside fear and self-interest and is open to benefiting from this engagement through inculturation and making our faith and worship more understandable and relevant to the needs of the world.”

Neither Cupich nor his aides would comment on SSPX.

Dated July 2, the Vatican decree on excommunication targets not just SSPX bishops but also followers, saying: “Clerics and lay faithful are warned not to adhere to the schism of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, because they would ipso facto incur the penalty of latae sententiae” — or automatic — “excommunication.”

A church website says of excommunication: “Properly understood in this way as a medicinal penalty, excommunication certainly does not expel the person from the Catholic Church, but simply forbids the excommunicated person from engaging in certain activities … in the life of the Church until the offender reforms and ceases from the offense.”