In an interview given by Bishop Jean-Marc Micas, the ordinary of the Diocese of Lourdes-Tarbes, the background of how the Vatican stopped using Father Marko Rupnik images was revealed.
Pope Leo received Micas in audience on June 26 last year, and during the meeting informed the French bishop about his opposition to the omnipresent Rupnik mosaics.
Meeting Leo XIV in the Apostolic Palace on August 28, Tammy Sandhu MBE was thus received formally by the Pontiff in the poignant meeting which marks a key stage in Vatican diplomacy.
Announced as incoming ambassador in May, Sandhu assumes the role upon the departure of Ambassador Chris Trott CVO.
“I was immensely proud to meet Pope Leo XIV and formally accept my appointment as British Ambassador to the Holy See,” Sandhu stated after the papal audience.
The proposed pastoral centre is three storeys, will contain meeting rooms and community facilities, and will act as “a resource building to provide training to a lot of people, lay people especially,” said a spokesperson for the diocese.
Diocesan Communications Officer Fr Tom Hayes said “the trustees and the bishop have an advisory group working on it, which is made up of a group of experts and consultants.”
“They advise the bishop on everything to do with buildings in the diocese. They’re working on it with the bishop at the moment, and they’re probably very likely to appeal the decision,” Fr Hayes continued.
As well as receiving a rejection from Cork City Council, the proposed centre has also received backlash from the Dennehy’s Cross Action Group, who submitted a formal objection signed by 54 residents which read that the structure proposed is “gross and totally out of character for the area.”
“This planning application is not a community initiative, but rather it’s the hierarchy of the church diocesan authorities imposing what is essentially a commercial office-type premises on us.”
The resource, titled Becoming a Synodal Pastoral Council, was developed over several months by the Archdiocese’s Mission and Ministry Team. It is, in the words of Patricia Carroll, Director of Mission and Ministry for the Archdiocese of Dublin, “a fruit of the synodal journey and the final report of October 2024”, which placed a strong emphasis on the importance of participatory bodies in a synodal Church.
Those participatory bodies, Ms Carroll explained, are usually [parish] councils and commissions where lay people and clergy gather “to prayerfully consider pastoral directions and decisions together”. It was in light of the importance of these bodies that the Mission and Ministry Team set about producing the new resource, aimed at helping pastoral councils make decisions using a synodal model of working.
“What this means in practice is that where many councils work like committees and feel like a business meeting, the synodal way of working together fosters joint decision-making based on communal discernment and making pastoral decisions together,” Ms Carroll said. The principal method underpinning this approach, she noted, is “conversation in the Spirit” — a structured process of shared prayer and listening that has become central to the wider synodal process across the universal Church.
Conscious that “it is not enough to produce a resource”, the Mission and Ministry Team has also put together a short training series to introduce councils to this new way of working and being together. Because Dublin is the largest diocese in the country, the training is being delivered through three webinars, sparing participants the need to travel while also giving them the chance to meet others from across the archdiocese.
Ms Carroll was clear that the initiative represents only a first step. “This is only the beginning of transforming the way councils have been working in Dublin, and it will be a long journey of transformation,” she said.
She also pointed to the wider significance of pastoral councils within the life of the Church, describing them as one of the key bodies through which the co-responsibility of lay and ordained members can be fully exercised.
The Justice Department on Aug. 28 released an extensive report on the memo, which was drafted out of the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, field office and leaked in early 2023.
Upon its leak the memo drew immediate criticism from Catholics and religious liberty advocates around the country. The FBI quickly retracted the document after the leak, with the bureau claiming that it did “not meet our exacting standards.”
On Aug. 28 FBI Director Kash Patel described the contents of the memo as “unacceptable.” He said the release of information “about what occurred under [the Biden administration] is an important part of the process” of ongoing investigations into alleged government weaponization.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, meanwhile, described the memo as “a clear abuse of power,” one that targeted “conservative and religious beliefs disfavored by agents of government.”
Memo arose from 2020 investigation into violent extremist
The Aug. 28 report — released by the Department of Justice’s Weaponization Working Group — said the Catholic memo arose out of an FBI investigation that began in 2020 regarding an individual who moved to Virginia from New York and began writing “violent and racially-motivated” posts on the internet.
That individual was ultimately sentenced to two separate prison terms on vandalism and weapons charges. Prior to his second imprisonment, he reportedly began attending a Virginia chapel run by the Society of St. Pius X.
Federal agents began investigating the chapel and a priest associated with it; their investigation expanded to include another priest connected to the so-called SSPX Resistance, a breakaway group that the FBI alleged has neo-Nazi sympathies.
Based on those investigations, starting in late 2022 the Richmond field office began developing a “domain perspective” on the alleged “increasing intersection” of “radical-traditional Catholics” and “domestic violent extremists.”
Subsequent research turned up “only two additional cases,” the working group report said, and FBI investigators found “nothing linking Catholics or groups not in full communion with the Catholic Church to domestic extremism.”
The investigation progressed to the point where analysts were preparing to develop a high-level executive report of the inquiry to present to senior FBI officials. Yet after the leak of the memo on Feb. 8, 2023, that report was never developed.
The working group report described the FBI memo as using a “sweeping generalization” of “radical-traditionalist” Catholics. Internal FBI presentation materials obtained by EWTN News identify the “core ideology and beliefs” of such Catholics as including “conservative family values/roles” and a “tendency toward isolationism.”
The memo further identified such Catholics as believing in the “creation of a totalitarian, anti-pluralist Catholic nation” as well as the “rejection of religious neutrality and right to religious freedom.”
The document drew a distinction between “radical” Catholics and so-called “traditionalist Catholics” who prefer the Traditional Latin Mass and pre-Vatican II traditions yet do not adhere to “the more extremist ideological beliefs and violent rhetoric” of the “radical” group.
An internal review of the memo found no “constitutional concerns” related to the analysis, the working group report said. Yet the memo spawned “significant internal criticisms” in the FBI after its leak, the report said.
In particular, an agent with the bureau’s counterterrorism division said the unit found no “significant linkage” between violent extremists and “radical traditionalist” Catholics.
Bureau leadership ultimately ordered the deletion of the memo, though the working group report said the memo was still being worked on more than a month after that order came down.
Later in the year the bureau’s inspection division found that the drafters of the memo demonstrated a lack of “professional judgment” and that they “failed to adhere to FBI standards.” The division ordered “all individuals” involved in the memo’s production to be “admonished” and be subject to additional training.
The working group report noted that the personnel involved in the production of the memo “have been terminated from their positions.” It argued that “history” will “rightly judge the Richmond Catholic Memo as a grave failure of the FBI Richmond Field Office” to uphold First Amendment rights.
The controversial memo has generated sustained criticism from religious liberty advocates as well as numerous responses from lawmakers in Washington since it was leaked.
In March the conservative legal group Judicial Watch was in federal court arguing for the release of un-redacted files related to the memo. Attorney Meredith DiLiberto expressed disappointment at the time that heavy redaction practices had continued from the Biden administration to the Trump administration.
In December 2024 Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, warned the government to not destroy federal records including documents related to the FBI investigation. Hawley said at the time that he had received reports of employees “destroying records and other documents in an effort to conceal widespread misconduct that took place under the [Joe] Biden administration.”
The working group report released on Aug. 28 did not mention any reports of records destruction. But Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department “will not tolerate a weaponized bureaucracy that chills First Amendment activity.”
The working group’s investigations into alleged government weaponization “will continue,” Blanche said.
Bishop John Opoku-Agyemang announced the suspension of Fr. Samuel Adapore on August 24, barring the Priest from administering any of the Sacraments publicly, including celebrating Mass, concelebrating at Mass, or officiating any other Liturgical services.
He said, “With a heavy heart but a great sense of duty to Holy Mother Church, I write to inform you of my decision, in consultation with the College of Consultors, to impose the canonical sanction of suspension a divinis indefinitely on Rev. Fr. Samuel Adapore.”
Bishop Opoku-Agyemang explained that the suspension, which took effect from August 24, meant that the Priest is “forbidden to administer any of the sacraments publicly, especially to celebrate Mass or concelebrate at Mass or to officiate any other liturgical services.”
In a letter to the Clergy, Members of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL), and the faithful of the Diocese, the Ghanaian Catholic Bishop stated, “This suspension is due to serious acts.”
The Bishop highlighted the seriousness of the actions, including what he described as “a unilateral decision” by the suspended Priest “to take a leave of absence from the diocese” and to abandon “his pastoral ministry at the St. Anthony of Padua Rectorate, Nkwantakese, without legitimate permission (in contravention of Can. 533 §1).”
“He also took all his personal effects from the mission house at Nkwantakese without recourse to anybody,” Bishop Opoku-Agyemang said of the Priest.
The Bishop further said attempts to contact Fr. Adapore had been unsuccessful, adding that his immediate family members had also said they were unaware of his current location.
“As at now, he has blocked all access to him and his immediate family members have maintained that none of them knows his whereabouts. Let us remember him in our prayers,” Bishop Opoku-Agyemang added.
The Right Reverend Anne Dyer, the Scottish Episcopal Church's Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, was suspended in 2022.
The church's independent procurator reviewed the evidence and decided it was not in the public interest to pursue matters any further.
Bishop Dyer will retire when she turns 70 in February.
After returning to work in November 2024, following the bullying allegations, she vowed to rebuild trust and relationships in her church.
She added it was time to try to "move forward".
The Scottish Episcopal Church said Bishop Dyer had now given the required six-month notice ahead of leaving.
She revealed the news of her retirement in a pastoral letter.
'Both joyful and challenging'
Bishop Dyer wrote: "Through times that have been both joyful and sometimes very challenging, it has been a privilege to serve as your bishop.
"I am much changed by this experience, and very grateful to God for all the grace and encouragement I have received."
Of her remaining time in the role, she added: "I will look forward to worshipping with as many of you as possible and continuing to give attention to the many projects that are in progress."
Her last day as Bishop of the Diocese will be 20 February.
A potential plea deal could have seen the bishop handed probation instead of prison time, if he agreed to plead guilty to some lesser crimes.
A preliminary hearing in Shaleta’s case began Thursday, with testimony expected to last two days. The bishop could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
In February, The Pillar broke the news that Shaleta had been accused of embezzlement and personal misconduct, amid a Vatican investigation that ended with Pope Leo accepting the resignations of both Shaleta and former Chaldean Patriarch Rafael Sako in March.
Shaleta, who previously led the Chaldean Catholic eparchy covering the western half of the U.S., is accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from his eparchy, attempting to reimburse missing funds with checks signed by him from a cathedral charity account.
He is alleged to have made frequent trips to a Tijuana brothel linked to the human trafficking industry, and known to have maintained a longstanding and close relationship to a woman with whom he shared a bank account and unfettered access to each others’ homes.
Shaleta maintains his innocence and has repeatedly told Catholics in his diocese that he will be vindicated. He pled not guilty March 9 to 16 criminal counts of money laundering and embezzlement. He claims to be the victim of a media campaign and of Chaldeans in his diocese who opposed his leadership.
Witnesses at the preliminary hearing included the Chaldean eparchy’s San Diego cathedral banquet hall manager, who reported being asked by the cathedral’s office manager in March 2024 to pay rent in cash because the bishop needed cash to help those in Iraq.
The cash payments went on for some six months, he said.
The office manager said she was instructed by Shaleta to collect the rent money of nearly $34,000 per month in cash, and that she gave it directly to the bishop. She said she informed someone on the finance committee of the situation after a few months.
According to the arrest warrant in the case, Shaleta first fell under suspicion in December 2024, when “discrepancies” were noticed in eparchy and cathedral bank accounts, including “approximately $427,345 missing from the [eparchy’s ‘needy account’] over an eight-month period.”
In addition to the rent scam, the arrest warrant recounted the charge that, “it appeared Shaleta would receive cash for church related trips, perpetual Masses, and other rental hall related costs.”
When that and other funds were found to be missing, “Bishop Shaleta was unable to provide documentation or records of how the cash was spent,” and “later claimed the cash was given to those in need in Iraq without providing further information,” the warrant’s affidavit alleged.
Shaleta was arrested at San Diego’s airport March 5, as he attempted to leave the United States with more than $9,000 in cash.
The bishop was released from jail in early March after making a bail of $125,000. A San Diego judge ordered the bishop to undergo GPS monitoring until his trial, noting the amount of money he is alleged to have stolen, and the fact that he was arrested while at the airport, with a flight booked to Europe, and more than $9,000 in his possession.
The Pillar also reported that while Shaleta submitted a letter of resignation from his diocesan post in late January, Patriarch Sako lobbied at the Vatican and among Chaldean bishops to see the bishop transferred to an administrative post in Baghdad, as a high-ranking official of the Chaldean patriarchate.
Sako had previously acknowledged to The Pillar that he raised the prospect of a transfer to Vatican officials, but suggested the idea was floated only before the Vatican-ordered investigation into Shaleta was “clear.” Sources have told The Pillar that the dicastery received a report on the case in late 2025, well before Sako polled Chaldean bishops about a transfer this year.
Sako’s resignation was accepted March 10, the same day as Shaleta’s, in a move widely taken among Chaldeans as indication of Vatican displeasure with the patriarch’s involvement in the case.
After Shaleta’s arrest, Bishop Francis Kalabat, who leads the Chaldean eparchy for the eastern United States, told the local faithful that they “absolutely” have “the right to know what is going on” regarding the accusations facing Shaleta.
“You are the children, you have every right to know what the father of this household is going through,” said Kalabat, in a homily in the Eparchy of St. Peter’s cathedral parish. He praised as “necessary” media outlets “who are coming out and saying the truth as it is, without putting judgments.”
The pope warned of “a subtle form of domination when algorithms decide who is seen” and who is not, “when digital platforms shape public discourse without accountability, and when the dignity of workers is subordinated to the optimization of systems.”
The role of lawmakers, Leo said, is to “encourage scientific and technological creativity while safeguarding fundamental human rights and freedom,” and to “protect users from exploitation, preserve personal privacy, ensure transparency in the use of emerging technologies.”
But while the pope was talking to lawmakers, he wasn’t just doing so as a pastor — he is himself a legislator, the lawmaker of the universal Church, and thus his words of advice might well be taken to apply to the ecclesial society, and its body of law, as to any other society.
The territorial state governed by the Holy See - the Vatican City State - is on the path to legislation concerning AI. In January 2025, a decree came into effect from the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State which created a commission on AI, meant to propose laws for the regulation on the use of AI with the Vatican City.
The decree also contained ethical principles for the use of AI, with a particular focus on avoiding manipulation, being transparent in the use of AI, and taking care to avoid the creation of social inequalities or the encouragement of criminal conduct.
Eventual legislation from the commission — which would be formally approved by the pope — would impact city state administrators, the Vatican Museums and gardens, the Vatican health service and court system, police and firefighters, and property managers, along with other clerical workers and contractors within the Vatican City State.
But while that project was already underway when Leo was elected, it could be seen as a smaller-scale test case for his bigger role, as universal legislator of the universal Church.
To date, the pope has not yet indicated that he is considering a revision to the Church’s universal canon law, in response to the disruptive technology of AI.
But as AI manifests new challenges for parishes, dioceses, and for the universal Church, dioceses, especially in the U.S., have already begun developing policies on the use of AI in their own work.
And other Catholic institutions have begun doing the same, with Catholic Charities USA issuing this month, for example, an “ethics guide” for diocesan Catholic Charities apostolates and their use of AI.
Some dioceses, however, are likely looking to the Vatican for guidance, or hoping that the Holy See will promulgate universal laws that give at least a framework to more local efforts, or that backstop policies which may not be immediately welcome — however they shake out — among Catholics with strongly held opinions on the subject.
A thorough regulation of AI in the Church’s life would doubtless touch on many areas of canon law.
To many Catholics, the most pressing issue for the Church to address is the use of generative AI in the creation of sacred images, hymn texts, and especially liturgical preaching. While the topic was not raised in Pope Leo’s Magnifica humanitas, many Catholics have noted in recent months the rising prevalence of AI-generated sacred images in parish or diocesan worship aids or catechetical material.
And an increasing number of Catholics have reported to The Pillar in recent months the experience of hearing homilies delivered in parish liturgies which bear the distinctive rhetorical patois of AI-generated text.
Given that liturgical preaching is an act so closely correlated with the charism and power of sacred orders, it seems an obvious place to begin, if the pope decided to address the prevalence of AI-generation in sacred contexts. Revisions to Book III of the Church’s Code of Canon Law, for example, could specify that since preaching is a human act, a human being should be the principal author of a text.
Similarly, there is growing dissatisfaction among a number of Catholics with the use of “AI slop” in the generation of sacred images — and clearly disparate expectations between those producing the images in parish and diocesan images, and those pushing back against them.
Of particular import on that question is what it means for images of divine and sacred persons to be created without the involvement of human beings — especially given the Church’s long history
If the current dispute over Rupnik-generated images has a lesson, it is that sacred art matters to people, and how it is created matters to them — which means that however the pontiff decides to address that, the conflict over “AI slop” Catholic images is unlikely to resolve on its own, absent some ecclesiastical guidance on the subject.
Two AI issues of key importance to Leo seem as relevant to ecclesial life as to any other sphere of society, and thus of particular import for legislation — transparency, and AI/human interaction. On the question of transparency, there is not presently any ecclesial guidance on when curial or diocesan offices should disclose the use of AI, and existing diocesan policies do not seem to consistently require it.
But the guidelines of the Vatican City State, along with other Vatican texts on the subject, emphasize frequently the importance of transparency about the use of AI, suggesting that Leo could include in the Church’s on the munus docendi — its teaching function — some regular disclosure in ecclesial documents and policies about the use and scope of AI.
In addition to transparency, Leo has emphasized the dignity of workers, and while that issue encompasses a variety of topics, they include a topic under discussion now — whether employees, students, and others in Catholic contexts have the right to opt out of AI-interaction, when it is used in instruction, assessment, the provision of services, or training.
Leo has been clear that the anthropomorphizing of large language models poses particular moral and anthropological problems, and that the contours of engagement of LLMs with people in the course of work merits particular and ongoing reflection.
As that unfolds, it seems reasonable to conclude that ecclesiastical authorities will have to make some judgement about whether engagement with LLMs can be considered compulsory for ecclesiastical employees and officeholders, and whether workers whose productivity proceeds at a more human rate because of the way they choose to make use of AI — or not — will be penalized.
While those things pertain mostly to ecclesiastical personnel, the place where LLMs seem most likely to be used in day-to-day diocesan operations is in the diocesan tribunal, where personnel write voluminous amounts as they adjudicate marriage cases — petitions for declarations of matrimonial nullity — and where, in some dioceses, parties and witnesses are asked to complete lengthy questionnaires.
To many tribunal personnel, it seems obvious that generative AI has little place in the legal work of tribunals, but that opinion is not universally held. And as tribunals face unrelenting pressure to adjudicate cases quickly, and with limited resources, some tribunal administrators will, doubtless, hope that AI can help staff do considerably more, and with less. That could likely lead to pressure on those personnel, which might well impact the judgments which they are required to make with genuine moral certitude.
At the same time, some Vatican officials have speculated that the existence of AI, and the way its very existence raises questions about the authenticity of written testimony and party declaration, could spell the end of written questionnaires in tribunal processes — a result that would actually lead tribunals to fuller conformity to procedural law.
But whatever the effects, it seems clear that the Church’s judiciary is a forum in which proactive regulation could prevent deepening inconsistency, and the possibility of challenges to the validity of various legal processes over issues related to AI usage.
From the start, Leo made clear that his legacy would be shaped largely by his leadership on the emerging social problems of AI. It remains to be seen whether he will start with how they impact the internal workings of ecclesial society.
The Reverend Dr Edmund Smith, curate of St Mary's in Chediston, near Halesworth, Suffolk, said he discovered the Paraphrases of Erasmus had been stolen when a visitor, hoping to see it, got in touch to say it was missing.
Smith said the book dated back to 1548 after Henry VIII's wife Catherine Parr petitioned to have Dutch intellectual Erasmus' Latin paraphrases of the Bible translated into English.
He said it was a "rarity" to find an intact volume of the book after many were destroyed during Mary I's reign.
"An item like this is part of our common heritage - they are part of what makes this church this church," said Smith.
"They are the tie we have back to generations before us - to lose it, by far, leaves us poorer."
He believed a chisel was used to steal the book from the locked case.
"The Church of England has always been part of the fabric of English life, it was never equipped for the modern age of crime," said Smith.
"A lot of sacred objects like this are just left in church because we have historically trusted that churches are a place of refuge and safety."
While Smith said the book could be sold for up to £5,000, he hoped to see it returned.
Speaking to Wayne Bavin on BBC Radio Suffolk, Smith said: "The only hope we have is the person who has stolen it will realise theft of a sacred object of a church is a particularly grave sin.
"We hope that will weigh on their heart and they will be moved to return it and seek forgiveness, which we will gladly give."
Church warden Jo Wareham said she felt "disappointed" someone could come and take a "treasure" from the church.
She said: "The idea that someone should come in from somewhere else and target it is really disturbing in a small village... little bits and pieces in the church mean something.
"They've left a hole - a gap where something should have been."
Suffolk Police said the theft was reported to the force and believed it had happened between 18 and 24 August.
A spokesperson added the book had been in a locked viewing cabinet and anyone with information should contact the force.
Those amounts were communicated in letters that hundreds of clergy abuse survivors participating in the New Orleans archdiocese’s bankruptcy began quietly receiving on Tuesday.
The figures are well below a $2.4m jury verdict awarded to an unrelated Louisiana religious sexual abuse claimant in June 2025 after the state’s legislature temporarily eliminated filing deadlines for such cases.
The amounts cited in the recent letters were also substantially below out-of-court settlements that a handful of clergy abuse survivors in the New Orleans area have reached in the verdict’s aftermath with Catholic institutions not affected by the bankruptcy, which evidently have been more or less comparable to the jury award.
Survivors say the amounts in the letters aren’t just insulting – but also the latest evidence of the disproportionate advantage enjoyed by the more than 40 Catholic institutions that have gone to federal court to declare amid the financial fallout of the church’s worldwide clergy molestation scandal, including nearly 30 such groups that have settled.
“This whole thing’s a farce,” Aaron Hebert, who was abused by Lawrence Hecker, a late, convicted child rapist and longtime archdiocesan priest, said on Thursday. Richard Coon, who has testified to being molested by three men with links to the archdiocese, added: “There’s a lot of survivors that are hurting right now.”
Driving the despair which Coon and Hebert described are two elements: the $305m settlement that the archdiocese as well as its insurers on 8 December agreed to pay to clergy abuse survivors to resolve a bankruptcy protection case opened in 2020; and a zero- to 100-point system determining each individual victim’s payment.
Settlement disclosure documents that disgusted victims virtually from the outset detail how points would be assigned based on the nature of the abuse, among other elements. Rape, for instance, equated to 75 points within the system; oral or digital abuse was 56 units; and grooming behavior was five.
Additionally, the archdiocese and others made comments in open court promising payments by the end of spring 2026. The process instead dragged, with settlement trustee Don Massey filing motions in court to get the church to turn over records needed to make payment determinations.
“Any promises made by the debtor (the archdiocese and its affiliates) were not made by the settlement trust,” Massey said when asked about payments not yet having been doled out. “The settlement trust was not consulted by the debtor prior to making this uninformed promise.”
By Thursday, days after the abuse claims valuations concluded, the Guardian and reporting partner WWL Louisiana had confirmed the maximum 100-point payout equated to an “estimated distribution” from the settlement of $641,425.64. That meant each allocated point was worth $6,414.26.
Hebert shared his letter with the outlets. He had been awarded 56 points – or an estimated settlement distribution of $359,198.
Meanwhile, having endured rape and oral sexual abuse by multiple clergy predators, Coon was allocated 98 points. He said it was “shocking” that he did not get maximum points given the circumstances surrounding his claim.
Coon, Hebert and bankruptcy claimant Brian Manix all expressed disbelief that allocation letters given to survivors failed to break down precisely how the claims evaluator, personal injury attorney Richard Arsenault, arrived at their points total. The missives just contained the final sum, the estimated settlement distribution, and an acknowledgment that the bankruptcy may have required them “to revisit deeply personal and difficult experience”.
Survivors have 30 days to ask for reconsideration, but without the basis for the points total, they’re left to guess why they didn’t receive what they expected.
“We asked … for that,” Manix said on Thursday. While he declined to publicly disclose his allocation, he confirmed he was not awarded maximum points, saying, “I was raped. I was made to give oral sex, and I was groomed … I need somebody to tell me … what’s missing.”
Arsenault did not respond on Thursday to a request for comment.
Sources familiar with the process say more than 800 abuse claims were given points allocations. Among them were more than 100 which got scores of zero – such as for claiming abuse by a predator or entity not affiliated with the archdiocese.
Furthermore, the sources said that about $56m from the settlement was being held back for a time to account for successful appeals. And any remaining money held back would then be redistributed to survivors based off their points allocations.
Still, that provided little comfort to Coon, Hebert, Manix and other survivors with whom they said they spoke in recent days. Perhaps most frustratingly for them, survivors who challenge their allocations must pay $1,000 out of pocket, according to a protocol established in December and which the vast majority of claimants approved.
Attorney Richard Trahant, who is part of a legal team representing Coon, Hebert, Manix and roughly 80 other abuse claimants in the New Orleans archdiocese’s bankruptcy, said a number of his clients would appeal their points and dollar amounts.
“The $1,000 fee for reconsideration of the point total is obnoxious,” Trahant also said. “And we will figure out how to address that in the coming days.”
Coon, Hebert and Manix said such factors combined to convince them that bankruptcy court was the wrong venue to be fairly compensated for their abuse – despite assertions by the archdiocese that it was the venue providing the most equitable solution.
As Coon put it: “The bankruptcy was all about protecting the church.”
The young woman, referred to in the civil lawsuit as "Jane Doe," said the Rev. Matthew Arbuckle groomed and alienated her from her family for years and exacerbated her struggles with mental health and suicidal issues, and that the diocese did not properly vet or supervise him.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Tippecanoe County said "Doe" now lives in Marion County and that she met Arbuckle as part of a youth group at Saint Joan of Arc in Kokomo.
In the fall of 2020, Doe contacted Arbuckle "because she was experiencing significant relationship losses (especially within her family), financial struggles and mental health issues," the lawsuit said. "Due to the frequency and subject matter of their communications, Jane Doe viewed Arbuckle as her primary means of support and her de facto mental health provider."
This included several years of sexually oriented conversations initiated by both, the document said, including when she panicked about the possibility that she was pregnant. Then she reached out to let him know she was not.
Diocese Communications Director Max Dryer said Thursday the diocese has no comment on "ongoing legal matters" and that the lawsuit addresses where Arbuckle is now: removed from ministry nearly two years ago, after notice of the lawsuit.
In 2020 and 2021, the young woman and the priest "exchanged near-daily text messages, with Jane frequently stating how much (Arbuckle) helps her and that she loves him," the court document said.
This allegedly led to "eventually crossing sexual boundaries," including hours-long phone conversations, FaceTime videos and, on two occasions, phone sex.
On March 30, 2021, "Jane Doe's mental health severely decompensated, she suffered with depression and suicidal ideation and had acquired a means of completion," the lawsuit said. She texted Arbuckle, "stating she did not want to live anymore."
Arbuckle "suggested she call him, at which time she did, disconnecting her call with the Suicide Hotline. While speaking with (Arbuckle), Jane Doe did not respond to return calls from the Suicide Hotline, resulting in a wellness check by authorities and Jane Doe's hospitalization," according to the lawsuit.
Not only did Arbuckle dissuade Doe from contacting her family about the incident and her struggles, he referred to it as "our little secret," which the lawsuit contends further isolated her and intensified her vulnerability.
Arbuckle also grew more bold about sharing his own beliefs and frustrations, including diocesan gossip, according to text chats included in the complaint.
In one such exchange, Arbuckle insulted Doe's political beliefs, writing, "Vote Republican. Vote red otherwise we're all dead. ... Your support of the Democrat party makes me seriously question how much I'm going to talk to you in the future. I don't talk to democrats. They're filth. Period."
In another text exchange, Arbuckle allegedly wrote, "Any whacko could (and plenty did) get ordained in the 70s, 80s and 90s," and he went on to complain about the bishop and fellow priests. The lawsuit calls this predatory behavior in confiding in her and sharing secrets.
The lawsuit said they would call each other pet names and "even discussed getting married and having children together."
Arbuckle eventually made "ineffective attempts to establish boundaries," which sent Doe into depression, "feeling betrayed, confused, ashamed and doubting her ability to detach from (Arbuckle) as her only source of support," the lawsuit said. Doe "often spent her days in bed, not showering or eating, and struggled to maintain daily living skills and functioning."
On Nov. 9, 2022, Arbuckle threatened "to go on a shooting spree" if Doe's mother contacted the bishop, and he sent a photo of one of his guns. But the lawsuit said her mother did contact another priest about a month later.
On Nov. 25, 2022, the diocese called Arbuckle to the office to discuss the report, the complaint said. "Concerned for their physical safety, diocesan officials summoned the Lafayette Police Department because of (Arbuckle's) shooting spree threat. Upon searching (his) vehicle, the police officer found a loaded 9mm pistol and an extra magazine."
Other court records show that a red-flag case was filed against the priest. The judge found Arbuckle "dangerous" and ordered his guns seized: two shotguns, a .22 rifle, an AR-15, a handgun and a Beretta CX4 Storm. The case was closed and the guns returned nearly a year later.
In December, the diocese publicly announced Arbuckle was suspended from public ministry. The lawsuit documents refer to "intensive treatment," but the details are redacted.
In October 2023, the diocese announced Arbuckle was assigned to public ministry at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Cicero, Indiana, where parishioners "were told only that Bishop Doherty had deemed (Arbuckle) fit to return to public ministry after working on personal issues that led to his absence from public ministry."
He was again removed from ministry about a year later, when the diocese received notice of Doe's formal complaint, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges several counts against the defendants, including negligence provision of mental health counseling, infliction of emotional distress, negligent supervision and negligent hiring. It also requests punitive damages.
Arbuckle "willfully, maliciously and intentionally, without regard for the consequences and rights of Jane Doe, used his spiritual authority to exploit Jane Dane, causing her to lose her faith in God and church," the lawsuit said. "Jane Doe, struggling to find a new spirituality, may never fully trust a minister or church again."
Gozo Bishop Anton Teuma said in a video statement on the Gozo Diocese Facebook page on Friday he reached this conclusion after receiving two investigative reports into the case.
The rape of the 14-year-old girl by four men happened in 2008 and resurfaced last March.
“There was influence by the priest on the family that led to the case being dropped. The original testimony of the parents, and the signature of the priest, along with others, in the settlement agreement, show this. Today, we say this intervention was not a wise decision and the priest realises this and states that today, he would have acted otherwise,” Teuma said.
However, despite describing the priest’s intervention in the rape case as unwise, Teuma said the influence “did not amount to intentional pressure” and Fr Said’s actions were motivated by the family’s wellbeing.
The bishop said from the family’s testimony it resulted that it was the family that sought the priest’s help at the time of the abuse because he already had a pastoral relationship with them.
“This means that initially, the priest was not called into the matter by the family of the alleged aggressors. It results that although the priest signed the settlement agreement with others, which was formulated by a lawyer, it wasn’t he who came up with the idea of the agreement and he did not negotiate any sum of money that had to be paid for the judicial process to come to an end,” Teuma said.
The bishop said he was taking the “just” advice given by the two investigative commissions that “there is no need to take any canonical action against the priest”.
Rape case goes back to 2008
The case goes back to 2008 but resurfaced last March after the Appeals Court confirmed the acquittal of brothers Mark Lorry Said, Peter Paul Said and Josef Said, and their friend, Peter Paul Debono. They were charged with sexually abusing and raping a 14-year-old girl in 2008.
The Said brothers are the siblings of former Nationalist MP Chris Said. Fr Michael Said is a relative of theirs.
The acquittal was down to the fact that the victim as an adult accepted to drop the charges in 2017 and 2020, after an out of court settlement worth €120,000 was reached. This meant the police could not pursue the case on their own steam since the law in 2008, when the abuse happened, did not allow such a possibility if the abuse happened on private property.
Back in 2008, Fr Michael Said was one of the intermediaries in an attempt by the accused to buy the victim’s silence with a €7,000 offer.
The family did withdraw the complaint a day later, a decision that caused the rape charges to be extinguished, even though the family later told the court they acquiesced under duress and regretted accepting the payment.
In his statement on Friday, Teuma said one of the investigations into the case was carried out by the Gozo Diocese Safeguarding Commission to determine whether there were any risks involving the priest’s work in schools. The second investigation was carried out by a board set up by the bishop that was composed of a retired judge, a lawyer and a judge on the tribunal of the Maltese Archdiocese.
Teuma said that before reaching his conclusion he assessed the court judgment, read through the sworn declarations presented by the parties, read the two investigative reports, heard the family, spoke to the alleged victim and Fr Said himself.
Commenting on the decision not to take canonical action against Fr Said, Teuma said: “I feel in this way we will be doing justice, not only with the priest but also with the family of the alleged victim that throughout the years until today maintained a good relationship with the priest, and do justice with the many people who know the priest and know what a good heart he has.”
Victim Support Malta: ‘Victims deserve both support and justice’
"Money, influence or private arrangements must never prevent allegations, particularly those involving a child, from being heard by the courts," Victim Support Malta said in a reaction on Friday,
The NGO highlighted that when accountability is avoided, those responsible can move on without consequences, while victims continue to live with the psychological effects of what was done to them every day.
They referred to the alleged rape of the minor, which they say was never examined by the courts because a priest persuaded the alleged victim to accept money “for therapeutic care” instead of going through the trauma of court proceedings.
“Therapeutic support is vital in helping victims of sexual violence heal, but it can never replace justice,” they said.
Bishop of Pinsk Antoni Dziemianko said this in an address to parishioners that was highlighted by Christian Vision. According to him, the diocese did not receive approval from the state authorities for Pulit to continue his ministry in Belarus.
“In connection with the forced departure from our diocese of Father Janusz Pulit, CM, we would like to thank him for dedicating more than 32 of his 39 years as a priest to serving the faithful in our land. He selflessly responded to the call of Cardinal Kazimierz Świątek and the superiors of his religious congregation and became involved in the life of the Pinsk Diocese,” the bishop’s address said.
Dziemianko also noted the shortage of local priests and the declining number of clergy from other countries who come to Belarus to work in Catholic parishes. According to him, it is difficult for the Pinsk Diocese to provide regular pastoral care to all parish communities across the territory from Brest to Homiel.
“Dear brothers and sisters! Over the many centuries of the Church’s history, your parish communities have experienced different times: periods of flourishing as well as difficulties. Today we are going through a period when there are not enough local pastors. We pray for vocations to the priesthood and support our seminarians. Your long-serving parish priest is leaving your parishes against his will. This is painful for all of us. But we, the bishops and priests, will help and support you as we remain together in the spirit of Christian faith, hope and love,” he assured them.
At the same time, according to Christian Vision, two other Polish priests serving in the Pinsk Diocese whose permits were due to expire received new permits for the next six months.
Pulit became the third Polish priest in the Pinsk Diocese whose permission to conduct pastoral ministry has not been renewed since the beginning of 2026. The heads of other dioceses have not publicly reported cases in which Polish priests’ permits were not renewed, and the faithful learned about them only from unofficial sources.
Subsequently, the file was forwarded to Dicasterio para la Doctrina de la Fe de la Santa Sede, as the body with jurisdiction in this matter, which decided to initiate the relevant canonical proceedings.
The diocese has also brought the matter to the attention of the relevant civil authorities and "remains fully prepared to cooperate with them in any way".
The Church has temporarily removed the priest from his duties. In addition, he is banned from participating in any activity involving minors. These actions, the diocese said, "do not prejudge the outcome of the ongoing proceedings".
"The Diocese of Zamora reaffirms its firm commitment to the protection of children and vulnerable people and to ensuring that any situation of this nature is fully investigated in collaboration with the relevant civil and ecclesiastical authorities," the statement says.
The diocese welcomes everybody involved in the proceedings to speak up, while it maintains the responsibility to ensure the safety of the complainants and respect "the accused's presumption of innocence".
The possible departure comes in the context of a reorganization of the congregation’s houses due to the decrease in the number of religious sisters and the lack of vocational replacements.
Currently, six religious sisters remain in the convent located next to the historic chapel of San Roque.
The possibility that the community might leave the city has led faithful connected to the church to mobilize to request their continuity, especially because of the role the community plays in eucharistic adoration.
A presence in Ferrol since 1958
The Handmaids arrived in Ferrol in 1958 and settled around the old chapel of San Roque, on the current Emilio Antón Avenue. The community has remained there for 68 years dedicated to its own charism: “adoration, praise, and reparation of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.”
Their presence is also linked to the history of Holy Week in Ferrol. The sisters have traditionally dedicated themselves to sewing and embroidery work for churches and confraternities, making and restoring habits, banners, standards, and other pieces of religious heritage.
The building also preserves an important part of Ferrol’s history. The chapel of San Roque is the only chapel predating the 18th century that remains in the urban center. Documentation preserved in the Diocesan Archive of Mondoñedo already attests in 1598 to the existence of a seafarers’ confraternity linked to San Roque.
The faithful mobilize to request that they remain
In light of the possible departure, faithful from Ferrol have begun a petition drive addressed to the superior general of the congregation. The mobilization includes people connected to the group of adorers Friends of the Lord and other local communities.
Friends of the Lord was born in June 2024 in the Handmaids’ own chapel. The initiative, promoted by the bishop of Mondoñedo-Ferrol, Msgr. Fernando García Cadiñanos, brings together more than sixty people who commit to spending one hour of adoration each week before the Blessed Sacrament.
The shifts ensure the presence of one or two adorers alongside the sisters between 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The religious community, for its part, maintains the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in accordance with the contemplative charism of the congregation.
The mobilization also includes days of prayer, the recitation of the rosary for vocations, and meetings of the so-called “Mothers’ Prayer.”
The reorganization of the communities
The possible departure from Ferrol is part of a broader process of reorganization of the houses of the Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament and of the Immaculate. The congregation, of pontifical right, was founded in Spain in the 1940s and has eucharistic adoration as the central element of its spirituality.
The most recent precedent occurred in Jerez de la Frontera, Andalusia, where the congregation closed its community in November 2025 after 51 years of presence.
The Diocese of Asidonia-Jerez then publicly expressed its “deep sorrow and concern” over a decision that meant the disappearance of a community that kept the church open for Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, and eucharistic adoration.
In Ferrol, however, the decision has not yet been made. The congregation plans to decide in September whether the six sisters will remain in the city or be assigned to other communities.
The Diocese of Mondoñedo-Ferrol itself noted in 2025 that the Handmaids constituted one of the four contemplative communities then present in its territory, alongside the Franciscan Conceptionists of Viveiro and Mondoñedo and the Poor Clares of Ribadeo.
“One attends first to one’s neighbor, who is the nearest, the one beside you, the Ceutan, before the one who is not,” he stated when asked about assistance to the migrants remaining in Ceuta.
The remarks come after several days of tension in the autonomous city over the presence of thousands of migrants who entered from Morocco at the end of July.
This Thursday, hundreds of residents blocked a Red Cross truck for more than two hours to prevent it from delivering food to the migrants camped on Trampolín beach, arguing that maintaining assistance encourages them to stay in the city.
Police eventually intervened to allow the distribution, and hours later new incidents occurred when groups of protesters went to several settlements.
“First of all, it must be said that the Church is not an NGO,” the priest replied, before clarifying that caring for the needy is one of its main tasks, but does not constitute its primary mission.“The Church’s main function is not to attend to the needy; it is certainly one of the principal ones, but the Church exists to attend to its people in the supernatural needs it must administer: the sacraments, preaching, the sustenance of the people of God,” he explained.
“It does not have sufficient resources to help those who have entered”
Molina made clear that this priority does not mean abandoning those who need assistance. “Of course, if it is within our power to help the needy, we will do so,” he affirmed, before pointing out the limits of available resources in the current situation.
“In the situation we are in, naturally the resources we have are not sufficient—not only the Church, but Ceuta itself; and the Church, as part of Ceuta, does not have sufficient resources to help those who have entered.”
The priest also recalled that the city’s welfare needs predate the migration crisis: “We also had poor people here before to attend to, and our resources were already limited for that.”
“It is charity that demands this hierarchy”
Addressing how to distribute the available aid, Molina explicitly appealed to the order of charity and rejected the idea that attention to the newly arrived should come at the expense of withdrawing resources from people in need in Ceuta.
“If, in addition, we have to take away from our own poor, from our own needy people, the resources we already possess, we find ourselves in a much more complicated situation,” he explained.
The priest concluded his reasoning with the statement that summarizes his position: “It is charity that demands this hierarchy. One attends first to one’s neighbor, who is the nearest, the one beside you, the Ceutan, before the one who is not.”
The local Church institutions have participated from the outset of the crisis in assisting the migrants. Parishes, Caritas and other ecclesial entities have collaborated in meeting the needs arising after the entries from Morocco.
From Physics and Piano to the priesthood
Jesús Francisco Molina was born in San Fernando (Andalusia) in 1998 and was ordained a priest of the diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta on 30 September 2023, at the age of 25, becoming at that time the youngest presbyter in the diocese.
Before entering the seminary he had planned to study Physics at the University of Seville. A gifted student, he began studying Piano at the age of four. His interest in the organ of Cádiz Cathedral eventually brought him into contact with seminarians and with Father Andrés Muñoz, who became his confessor.
In an interview given to Diario de Cádiz on the occasion of his ordination, Molina identified the decisive moment of his vocation as 25 February 2016, when he was still a teenager and already in the process of discernment. During a Mass, he recounted, “I perceived very clearly that saying yes to the priesthood was in reality the absolute act of freedom I could make in my life.”
He eventually entered the Diocesan Seminary and during his eight years of formation continued to play the organ of the Cathedral. “It seems strange to make such a great commitment at such a young age,” he acknowledged before his ordination, but added: “Now is when one has so much to offer, has a whole life ahead to give. One must be generous, in this case with the love of God.”