Notre Dame investigation reveals sex abuse allegations involving priests

The University of Notre Dame said an investigation into the former leader of a residence hall found multiple occurrences of sexual abuse.

According to a 25-page report, Rev. Thomas King “sexually touched or assaulted” students at Notre Dame and after he left the University. 

The report says King engaged in “grooming behaviors” and used his power as an authority figure to orchestrate inappropriate situations.

A common tactic detailed in the report involved King lying to students about his concern for their health, making them fully undress to weigh them. 

The investigation identified credible reports of 15 former students who were victims of the “weighing scheme”.

Some witnesses said King coerced them into silence by threatening their ability to attend Notre Dame.

King served as rector of Zahm Hall from 1980 to 1997. 

A rector oversees residence halls at the University, living with students in single-sex complexes. Zahm Hall was a men’s residence hall during King’s tenure.

The Notre Dame Board of Trustees commissioned the investigation last fall following allegations of abuse involving King. 

A former sex crimes prosecutor, Helen Carter of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, carried out the investigation. 

101 interviews and a review of more than 1,000 documents helped shape the final report.

King, through counsel, refused to be interviewed, according to the report.

“We are deeply disturbed by these findings and wish to extend our deepest apologies to the victims for what they endured,” University President Rev. Robert Dowd and Board Chair John Veihmeyer said in a joint statement. 

“The conduct described in this report is antithetical to everything Notre Dame stands for and to the dignity and respect owed to every member of this community.”

The report follows a former Zahm Hall resident writing a letter to Notre Dame in 2018, saying he was a victim of the weighing scheme in the 1990’s. 

During an initial investigation, the report says King “intimated that he had resigned from teaching at Holy Cross College because of similar accusations.”

During King’s tenure at Notre Dame, the report says Zahm Hall was known for having a “fraternity-like” culture. 

“Witnesses described an environment in Zahm that was permeated by a persistent sexual undercurrent, where sexualized behavior was normalized and appropriate boundaries were routinely disregarded.”

Freshman residents would annually take part in the “Odin ritual” before the first home football game of the season, parading across campus in togas, being slapped with dead fish, covered with shaving cream, and jumping into mud. 

Witnesses told investigators that King would direct participants to remove their togas and underwear so he could hose them down. 

Another Zahm tradition, the “Bun Run”, saw freshmen run naked through campus during finals week. King took group photos of naked participants, the report states.

Following his time as rector, King continued to teach at Holy Cross College until 2007. He worked at Holy Cross for 27 years, total. 

He also served as the pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church near Lakeville, Indiana from 1999 to 2007. He then worked at St. Mark Parish in Niles, Michigan until 2019.

A former parishioner at St. Mark told investigators King molested him in the parish rectory.

The report also revealed previously undisclosed allegations of abuse against Rev. David Porterfield. 

Despite multiple allegations of abuse, Portfield was able to work in various roles for the University of Notre Dame and in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, giving him access to young men in a ministerial position from 1983 through 2018.

Gaps in communication between the Congregation of Holy Cross and the University of Notre Dame as well as incomplete internal record keeping practices identified in the report may have allowed Porterfield and King to avoid repercussions.

“As a community, we must confront our deep sorrow and pain and redouble our efforts to become the Notre Dame we seek to be,” Dowd and Veihmeyer said in their statement. “We also acknowledge that our work on these efforts must be ongoing and evolving.”

In response to the report, Notre Dame said it’s adopting new safety measures.

The University said it will institute a new oversight policy to track sexual misconduct, improved information sharing between Notre Dame and the Congregation of Holy Cross about reports of misconduct, educational programming, and enhanced reporting to the Board of Trustees on how allegations are handled.

The University said it’s creating a Counseling Support Program to provide mental health serives to former students who were victims of sexual abuse or misconduct.

Current Notre Dame students in need of support can contact the University Counseling Center at 574-631-7336 or find help online through TimelyCare. Faculty and staff can contact the Employee Assistance Program at 1-888-293-3740. 

A list of University resources, including confidential advocates and reporting options, are available at https://equity.nd.edu/resources/

Catholic priest said ‘we are but men’ when challenged over sex with spiritual directee, court heard

A Roman Catholic priest replied “we are but men” when confronted after the son of a woman to whom he was providing spiritual guidance caught the clergyman having sex with his mother, according to court testimony in Texas on Wednesday.

That version of events emerged at the second day of the trial of Anthony Odiong, who has been criminally charged with illicitly abusing his status as a clergyman to pursue sex with spiritually vulnerable female congregants.

A son of one of those women, now 29, told jurors at the state courthouse in Waco, Texas, that he was about 14 in 2011 when his devoutly Catholic mother – fresh from a tumultuous divorce – hosted a party at the home she shared with her seven children. 

Among the guests was Odiong, who was a priest at a Catholic church attended by students and employees of Waco’s Baylor University, where the son’s mother worked.

Odiong had been meeting the mother frequently in the aftermath of her divorce, ostensibly to provide her with spiritual direction, in sessions at his office or even her home, according to the son and separate testimony on Wednesday from one of his younger sisters.

But the night of the party, he said he was locked in the woman’s bedroom with her, and the son – who had even been an altar server of Odiong – suddenly heard noises coming from behind the door. 

He burst in, saw a bottomless Odiong was lying on the floor atop his mother, and deduced they had been having sex.

The son said he ran to the home of a neighbor – Baylor’s theological seminary dean, Todd Still – and, in a panic, described what he saw. 

Baylor’s longtime university chaplain and spiritual life dean, Burt Burleson, then learned about the situation from Still, and he testified on Wednesday that he relayed the “profoundly inappropriate” matter to a supervisor of Odiong at the Catholic diocese of Austin.

Burleson testified that he also confronted Odiong – and was surprised at the priest’s nonchalant reaction.

“We are but men,” Burleson recalled Odiong saying.

The son later spoke to a diocesan official about everything – along with Odiong while the priest supposedly took his confession. 

But the son said he did not want to get anyone in trouble, especially his mother, who could be fired from Baylor if she was ever found to be conducting herself in a manner that was inconsistent with Christian values.

He said he told the diocesan official that what he saw with his mother and Odiong may have been ambiguous. 

He also acknowledged in court that a continuing battle with substance abuse had already started that night, when he had been drinking well under the legal age.

Odiong’s career largely continued unimpeded, with his then spending time studying in Rome and eventually transferring to a church in the New Orleans suburb of Luling, Louisiana, until late 2023. 

His mother eventually saw a Guardian news story published after the end of Odiong’s time in Luling about other women who accused him of sexual coercion, unwanted touching and abusive financial control in his capacity as a priest, including in Texas.

The story described how a Texas state law considers it assault for clergymen to exploit congregants’ emotional dependency on them to engage in sexual conduct with them. 

The woman went to Waco police to report what she said Odiong had done to her. 

That prompted an investigation that culminated in the identification of two more women Odiong was alleged to have assaulted by exploiting his clerical status, resulting in criminal charges against him and the trial in Waco.

One of those two additional women – whom the Guardian had interviewed in its coverage of Odiong – testified late on Wednesday afternoon. 

She recounted how she was in the throes of an abusive, failing marriage with a Baylor instructor when Odiong began spiritually directing her on her marital troubles.

At one point during that direction, she testified, Odiong convinced her to subject herself – for the sake of her marriage – to a form of intercourse with her husband that was painfully uncomfortable for her, which prosecutors contend qualifies as assault by the clergyman. 

Odiong had her discuss that encounter to him – and said the hurt it inflicted was “good for her humility”, she testified.

Odiong kissed her against her will once, too, she said. She also said he said her marriage was not “true” and proposed she instead enter into a “spiritual” one with him.

She said she eventually left that marriage after another priest who provided her spiritual guidance asked her to consider doing so for her physical safety. 

Odiong berated her when she told him she would be seeking a divorce, she said.

She said she did not speak out about Odiong as soon as she would have liked because she thought he had genuine if inappropriate feelings for her.

“I feel very ashamed at so many ways that I allowed myself to be treated,” that woman testified. She added, “I … so completely missed” on judging his character.

Odiong, 57, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to the five charges of first-degree and two counts of second-degree sexual assault that he faces. He could face life imprisonment if convicted on any of the first-degree charges.

Waco prosecutors Ryan Calvert and Liz Buice were able to secure criminal charges against Odiong without regard for how long ago his alleged crimes may have occurred because investigators established there were as many as 10 women the priest was suspected of sexually preying on.

In her opening statement, Buice indicated that she and Calvert planned to call as witnesses at least some of those women, even if not all of their cases resulted in formal charges against Odiong.

A Waco police detective, Zach Koenig, on Wednesday testified about an interview with one woman whose case did not produce charges. 

The woman, who had recently lived in Pennsylvania, also spoke previously to the Guardian and reporting partner WWL Louisiana – and aspects of her account echoed some of the testimony heard earlier in the day, Koenig testified.

Judge Thomas West allowed Koenig to offer that hearsay testimony – which is generally barred from trial proceedings – under an exception that came into effect because Odiong maintained that prosecutors’ deadline to charge him lapsed regardless of the number of accusers identified by authorities.

Prosecutors say all of the women’s stories establish Odiong’s pattern of pursuing female congregants. And they have previously noted how – despite Catholic priests’ promise to practice sexual celibacy – there is evidence Odiong even had a child with one of the women whose case did not lead to formal charges against him.

While cross-examining witnesses on Wednesday, Odiong’s attorneys, Gerald Villarrial and Carolina Truesdale, sought to challenge the reliability of the recollections of the witnesses whose mother reported his client to police. 

They established that Odiong was not the only priest known to go to that woman’s house – and questioned whether the clergyman could ever carry out certain behaviors while, in a sense, he was off-duty from his clerical role.

They drew out testimony that there is such as a thing as sinful but not criminal sex for priests under Catholic church law. 

And Villarial posited that he found it unfair for a woman to accuse Odiong of a sexual assault she says was actually carried out by her husband at the time.

Calvert, meanwhile, elicited witness testimony from a University of Notre Dame canon – or church – law lawyer, John Paul Kimes, that Roman Catholic priests like him and Odiong are never off the clock. 

And Kimes also testified that priests do hold a spiritual authority over congregants that they must take care to not exploit.

“We never stop being on duty,” said Kimes, whose credentials include having prosecuted more than 1,100 Catholic clergy sex abusers under canon law for the Vatican entity handling such cases.

US dioceses strive to balance abuse compensation and survival in bankruptcy settlements

The Archdiocese of Baltimore proposed establishing a $168.9 million Survivor Compensation Trust as part of its plan for reorganisation in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

That amount would be funded by contributions from the archdiocese and its insurers, with additional funds being contributed by parishes, schools and other Catholic entities, the archdiocese’s Catholic Review reported.

“At its core, the proposed plan seeks to provide equitable compensation to survivors while sustaining the Church’s mission and ministries. It reflects a commitment to transparency and a realistic assessment of available resources,” the archdiocese said in a statement on 15 May.

In Vermont, where the Diocese of Burlington filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the autumn of 2024, a bankruptcy judge has expressed concern that the diocese lacks a concrete reorganisation plan.

On 19 May, Judge Heather Cooper held meetings with all parties to discuss the way forward, including how to preserve money for creditors, which include more than 100 individuals who allege sexual abuse by clergy, the Vermont Digger reported.

“My concern is that I don’t want [the money] all going to the professionals. I do think that the survivors probably would like to have something left over at the end of the day,” Cooper told the attorneys during an earlier hearing.

In New York, Diocese of Ogdensburg agreed on 19 May to pay $45 million to resolve 125 claims from individuals who say they were sexually abused by priests and other church leaders.

“My hope and prayer is that this process will bring peace and healing to all survivors and to all the faithful whose hearts were broken by the gravely sinful conduct of Church leaders. I pray that this settlement will bring healing to all,” said Bishop Terry LaValley of Ogdensburg said.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy on 17 July 2023 to resolve lawsuits that were filed shortly after New York state lawmakers passed the Child Victims Act, which opened a one-year “look back” window for sexual abuse survivors to file previously-expired civil claims barred by the statute of limitations.

More Polish priests expelled from Belarus leaving parishes bereft

The Belarusian authorities expelled a group of Polish clergy who have served in their parishes for decades.

Christian Vision, an ecumenical website, reported that five priests and one monk were obliged to leave Belarus last week, while those who remain were uncertain of their future because the authorities can extend or revoke their residence permits every six months.

“The authorities have denied five Catholic priests and one monk of the Minsk-Mogilev archdiocese, who have Polish citizenship, permission to continue serving in Belarus,” the website reported on 21 May.

All of the priests have been ministering in the country for many years. 

One of them, Fr Lech Bakhanek, came to the St Alexis parish in Ivyanyets in 2000 and eventually founded numerous pastoral projects.

According to Christian Vision, the authorities tried not to renew his residence permit in 2016, they cancelled the decision and issued a new permit after local Catholics protested.

The expulsions followed others in recent weeks. 

On 3 May, Christian Vision reported that the permits were denied for three Polish Catholic priests of the Diocese of Vitebsk, while in early March two Polish priests were expelled from the Diocese of Pinsk, leaving six parishes of the Brest region with no priest at all.

According to the Belarusian website Katolik.Life, “the faithful learned that some of these priests were recently warned by local authorities that their permits would not be extended, and that in order to remain in the country, they must submit a package of documents to obtain Belarusian citizenship”.

Last week the Instagram account of the Soligorsk parish called on locals “to ‘ring all the bells’ and send appeals to government agencies”, including the Presidential Administration, the Minsk Regional Executive Committee and the apostolic nunciature.

“In any case, the trend is now clear: an exodus of Polish priests from Belarus, where there is already a catastrophic shortage of clergy, and many priests are forced to serve several parishes,” Katolik.Life said.

Leo XIV: "True peace begins in a heart that loves"

At the conclusion of the Rosary for Peace prayed this Saturday in the Vatican Gardens on the occasion of the end of the month of May, Pope Leo XIV delivered a message focused on the need to become authentic builders of peace amid the tensions and conflicts shaking the world.

During his address, the Pontiff recalled that peace is not a theory or a utopia, but a gift from God that requires a daily commitment based on justice, truth, and love. 

Leo XIV also made explicit reference to the responsibility of Christians in the use of social media, inviting them to refrain from all forms of verbal and physical violence. 

The Pope emphasized that authentic peace bears the face of Jesus Christ and exhorted the faithful to respond with deeds, not only with words, to God’s call to be artisans of reconciliation.

Below is the full text of the address delivered by the Holy Father:

«I will listen to what God the Lord says: he announces peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who return to him with trust» (Ps 85:9).

The words of the Psalm accompany our prayer of the Rosary this evening well, because they express the hope we so greatly need, especially in the face of the difficulties and violence of the present time.

Let us therefore dispose our hearts to listen to the Word of God, so that, in prayer, we may understand the meaning of what is happening in history, recognizing the providence of God, who always guides it and comes to our aid. 

The Virgin Mary is the model of the believer who lends the ear of the heart to listen to «what God says». She gives us an example with her obedience, which welcomes the incarnation of the Son of God in her womb.

Contemplating with Mary the mysteries of the Rosary leads us to recognize in Jesus Christ the only definitive Word the Father has spoken, a Word of peace for all who return to Him with a repentant heart. The Lord never abandons us; even when we forget Him, even when we lose our way, He comes to seek us and draws near to us with His everlasting love. 

As the prophet Isaiah reminds us: «I will put on their lips: peace, peace to those far off and to those near» (Is 57:19). Whoever trusts in God understands this proclamation of peace and becomes its artisan, building it with their own hands (cf. Mt 5:9).

Peace, in fact, is not a theory to be verified in a laboratory, nor a naïve illusion, nor a matter to be managed out of self-interest. When sought with a sincere heart, it is rather a daily commitment of our life: it springs from justice and love, like a harmony that unites persons, families, communities, and peoples. 

Even in this time of tensions and conflicts, peace becomes possible when we are willing to listen to the cry of those deprived of it: innocent children, anguished mothers and fathers, mistreated prisoners, refugees, and people of every age who suffer. All of them have but one word on their lips: peace.

We know this: peace is always possible because it is a gift from God. This peace, His peace, bears the face of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who in His life given for us reconciled heaven and earth. 

As the Apostle Saint Paul writes: «He is our peace» (Eph 2:14), the One who breaks down the walls of enmity, overcomes arrogance with humility, and rescues all creation from sin.

When the Lord Jesus is with us and we behave as true disciples of His love, then the Holy Spirit can accomplish what humanly seems impossible. 

When, on the contrary, we distance ourselves from God, we also distance ourselves from man, from our neighbor, remaining indifferent to his pain. 

Every time we return to the Lord, His peace becomes our commitment, according to the tasks and responsibilities of each one.

Our prayer thus becomes mission and prophecy: there must be no more weeping of innocents in our cities; no one must flee their home because of the threat of bombs; the ambition for power and the violence of words must give way to the thirst for justice and truth. 

But each one can and must do their part, beginning with small but important things, refraining from all verbal or physical violence, in daily life and also on social media.

Dear brothers and sisters, true peace begins in a heart that loves; it is witnessed by lips that speak words of reconciliation; it is reflected in eyes that look upon the world with gentleness and wisdom. This is the true strength: the strength of truth and love.

God is seeking builders of peace! May our Most Holy Mother help us to respond to Him each day with our «here I am», not with words, but with deeds.

Spanish Government gives three months to remove the Cross of the Fallen in Cáceres

The Government has repeatedly demanded the removal of the Cruz de los Caídos in Cáceres and has granted the City Council a three-month deadline to eliminate the monument from public space. 

The new resolution, sent by the Secretaría de Estado de Memoria Democrática, has prompted an immediate response from the council, which has announced administrative appeals and legal actions to prevent its disappearance.

The decision comes after the Executive included the cross last April in the Catálogo de símbolos y elementos contrarios a la memoria democrática. 

Since then, the controversy has grown, as the monument is seen by its detractors as maintaining a link to Francoism, while its defenders consider it a symbol integrated for decades into the life of the city.

The Government rejects the religious character of the monument

One of the most controversial aspects of the case is the reasoning used by the Ministerio de Política Territorial y Memoria Democrática to justify the removal.

According to the Government, the Cruz de los Caídos cannot be considered a religious symbol, since its origin would be linked to the commemoration of those who died on the Nationalist side during the Civil War. 

The Ministry considers that the monument retains its original meaning and maintains a high symbolic value associated with the Franco regime.

Likewise, the Executive argues that the cross lacks sufficient artistic uniqueness to justify its permanence in public space and recalls that for decades it was used as the setting for official acts of exaltation of the regime.

The City Council announces a legal battle

In response to the ministerial order, the mayor of Cáceres, Rafael Mateos, has confirmed that the City Council will appeal the new resolution and will exhaust all legal avenues to defend the monument’s permanence.

The council had already challenged a previous resolution and believes the procedure presents significant legal flaws. 

In addition, it will request the suspension of deadlines while the corresponding appeals are processed.

Mateos has argued that the cross is part of the city’s urban landscape and constitutes a point of reference for several generations of cacereños. 

In his view, many residents no longer identify it with political exaltation, but rather with an element fully integrated into the history of Cáceres.

A cross at the center of political and cultural dispute

The controversy has intensified in recent months following the agreement reached between PP and Vox in Extremadura to promote the declaration of the Cruz de los Caídos as a Bien de Interés Cultural (BIC), an initiative aimed at ensuring its heritage protection.

Meanwhile, memorialist associations have welcomed the Government’s decision and are calling for the removal to be carried out as soon as possible, considering the monument one of the main Francoist vestiges remaining in the city.

The new resolution from the Secretaría de Estado de Memoria Democrática now opens a new chapter in a dispute that will likely end in the courts and goes beyond the specific case of Cáceres. 

At the heart of the debate lies a question that continues to generate division in Spain: the meaning of crosses present in public spaces and the place that Christian symbols should occupy in the country’s historical memory.

When Catholic scouting is no longer either scouting or Catholic

The news about the decision of the Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts Association (AGESCI) to remove sexual orientation and gender identity as criteria for discernment for those holding educational responsibilities has landed like a bombshell in certain sectors of the scouting world, in Europe and in Spain.

And its gravity calls for a much deeper reflection than the mere chronicle of an organizational change. 

What is at stake is not an administrative issue or a matter of how scouting is practiced (what scouts do). 

What is at stake is the very nature of scouting in general and of Catholic scouting in particular.

Because scouting was not born as a simple youth leisure activity. Robert Baden-Powell created an extraordinarily effective pedagogical method to shape character, awaken a sense of duty, cultivate personal responsibility, and educate in the virtues that make a mature adult life possible. 

More than a century later, no one can deny the enormous educational contribution of that project born in England.

However, the true qualitative leap in the scout method came when Father Jacques Sevin understood that this method could become a formidable tool for evangelization. 

It was not about superficially baptizing outdoor activities or adding a few prayers at the end of meetings. 

It was about integrating the Christian vision of the human person into the entire scout pedagogy.

Father Sevin knew Baden-Powell personally and was able to discover the enormous compatibility between the scout method and Christian anthropology. 

From that fusion was born modern Catholic scouting, which for decades formed generations of young people in love for God, neighbor, country, and service.

Precisely for this reason, it is especially painful to see how many of the major scout associations that were born under Catholic inspiration and were welcomed by the Episcopal Conferences of their respective countries in the 1960s have gradually moved away from their roots. 

The problem is not new. 

It has been brewing for decades, throughout Europe and also in Spain.

First, they relativized the spiritual dimension and then forgot it completely. 

Later, character formation was replaced by dynamics of emotional self-expression. 

Then educational demands were abandoned in the name of a false inclusion. 

And finally, the language, anthropological categories, and ideological assumptions of the contemporary cultural revolution have been accepted.

What human model does Catholic scouting propose today?

The fundamental question is not whether certain people can participate in a scout association. 

The question is quite different: what human model does Catholic scouting propose to children and adolescents through its foundational documents and, above all, through the models of educators who work directly with children and adolescents?

Because the scout method is not neutral. 

It never has been. 

All education necessarily starts from a particular conception of the human person. 

And Catholic scouting can only be called such if it fully takes into account Christian anthropology and the educational and evangelizing mission of the Church, offered concretely through the forms and methods of scouting.

When these foundations disappear, the method is emptied of content. 

The uniform may remain. 

The camp may remain. 

Even traditional terminology may remain. 

But the educational and Catholic essence is no longer there.

No scout association excludes anyone because of their sexual tendencies. 

What every Catholic youth association must do is ensure that the educational role models who work directly with children and adolescents can truly serve as references for them. 

And it is precisely on this point that the AGESCI decision is especially serious.

During childhood and adolescence, young people seek references. 

Parents remain fundamental, but all educators know that there comes a stage when adolescents begin to look beyond the family sphere to find models that help them build their own identity.

That is why the Church has always considered that those who perform formative roles with minors must offer not only technical competence, but also and above all moral coherence and clarity in their way of living.

It is profoundly irresponsible for an organization that presents itself as Catholic and is recognized as such by its Episcopal Conference to explicitly renounce evaluating the anthropological and moral suitability of those who will become role models for children and adolescents. 

The issue is not the personal dignity of anyone, which is undeniable and must always be respected. 

The issue is whether a Catholic educational institution can behave as if the Christian vision of sexuality were irrelevant for those who hold formative responsibilities.

Because when an association states that sexual orientation or gender identity are completely indifferent matters for educational discernment, it is implicitly saying that Catholic anthropology is also indifferent.

And that represents a frontal rupture with the educational tradition of Catholic scouting.

It is no coincidence that the new document approved by the Italian scouts also includes training programs on gender identity and sexual orientation and promotes the adoption of the new language imposed by contemporary political correctness.

What is presented today as inclusion ends up tomorrow becoming a profound transformation of the entire educational proposal.

The alternative of the Scouts of Europe

Fortunately, not all European Catholic scouting has followed that path.

The International Union of Guides and Scouts of Europe was born after the Second World War to unite the new European generations through the method of Catholic scouting of the Jesuit Fr. Sevin, now in the process of beatification and already recognized by Benedict XVI as Venerable. 

The Scouts of Europe were recognized as an International Private Association of the Faithful of Pontifical Right by Pope Saint John Paul II in 2003.

In Spain, the Spanish Association of Guides and Scouts of Europe, belonging to this federation, has been present since 1978 and was recognized by the Spanish Episcopal Conference as a Private Association of the Faithful in 2007 and is part of this international federation.

Its educational proposal continues to defend without hesitation what made Catholic scouting great: character formation, a sense of the concrete, service, health, and the search for God through its original intuitions: differentiated education, outdoor life, personal demands, careful liturgy, hands-on work, coherent living of the faith, etc.

Perhaps that is why many parents are turning their gaze today toward this Spanish association. 

Because they sense that young people do not need more confusion. 

They do not need more anthropological experiments. 

They do not need more concessions to ideological fashions. 

They need convinced educators. 

They need solid role models. 

They need truth.

Return to Baden-Powell, return to Father Sevin, return to Christ

The real question that many European scout associations should be asking themselves today is simple: do they want to continue being Catholic scouts or become just another youth organization adapted to the spirit of the world?

Because history shows that every time a Catholic institution tries to make itself acceptable to the dominant culture, it ends up losing what made it valuable.

Catholic scouting does not need to reinvent itself.

It needs to return to Baden-Powell, return to Father Sevin, and thereby return to Christ.

Those who remain faithful will continue to form generations of free, strong, and holy young people. 

Those who do not will be able to keep the uniform, but they will have lost the soul and therefore should also completely lose the name so as not to confuse anyone.

Rosary of Lepanto to the visit of Leo XIV: Spain awaits a Marian pope

From June 6 to 12, 2026, Pope Leo XIV will make his first apostolic journey to Spain, accepting the invitation of King Felipe VI and the Church in our country. 

Madrid, Barcelona, and the Canary Islands — with stops in Tenerife and Gran Canaria — will welcome the successor of Peter. 

The Episcopal Conference, in announcing the visit, wisely asked that it not be seen primarily as a media event or diplomatic gesture, but for what it truly is: “an event of faith,” a call to ecclesial communion, to hope, and to the renewal of the Christian heart.

It is worth taking the bishops at their word. 

Because the temptation these days will be to interpret the trip through the single lens already circulating everywhere. 

This very Monday, the Vatican presented Magnifica humanitas, the first encyclical of Leo XIV, signed on May 15 — the exact 135th anniversary of Rerum novarum — and dedicated to safeguarding the human person in the face of artificial intelligence. 

The reading is immediate and, to a certain extent, irresistible: if Leo XIII confronted an industrial revolution, Leo XIV faces one that is even more disruptive; if the former inaugurated the Church’s social doctrine, the latter updates it in the presence of machines that learn. 

The pontiff himself stated this to the cardinals two days after his election. And the encyclical confirms it.

It is not an incorrect reading. It is an incomplete one.

There is a second thread

There exists between the two Leos a continuity that is less discussed but no less profound. 

This has been demonstrated, with erudition and without stridency, by Monsignor Alberto José González Chaves in From Leo XIII to Leo XIV: United by the Rosary (Bibliotheca Homo Legens), a book that also had a notable intuition: when it was published, it asked aloud whether the new pope would dedicate an encyclical to the new “industrial revolution” and to artificial intelligence. 

The question posed in those pages now has an answer. 

But the book did not stop there; it maintained something harder to see and, for that very reason, more necessary to say.

What unites Leo XIV with Leo XIII is not only the name, nor only the social question. 

Above all, it is Mary. And, within Marian devotion, a specific prayer — popular, almost disarming in its simplicity: the rosary.

Leo XIII was the great renewer of contemporary Mariology. 

He dedicated nearly a dozen Marian letters to this single devotion, from the Supremi apostolatus officio of 1883 to the Diuturni temporis of 1898, convinced that the rosary is not sterile repetition but a pedagogy of love capable of introducing even the simplest of the faithful to the contemplation of the mysteries of Christ. 

Leo XIV has begun his pontificate along the same path. He was elected on May 8, 2025, the day of the traditional Supplication to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, and that same afternoon, from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, he prayed a Hail Mary with the crowd. 

It was not an improvised gesture: as Bishop of Chiclayo he had consecrated Peru to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, had requested the pilgrim image of Fatima for his diocese, and had composed a Marian consecration prayer himself. 

Two days after his election he paid a surprise visit to the Augustinian shrine of the Madonna del Buon Consiglio in Genazzano. 

And in September he invited the whole Church to pray the rosary every day in October for peace. 

Like Leo XIII. Like his predecessors. Today as yesterday.

Why this matters to Spain

This is where the June visit takes on particular significance. 

Because if a Marian pope comes to Spain, he comes to a land shaped by the rosary.

This is not pious rhetoric: it is history. González Chaves’s book traces it without sentimentality. 

The Reconquest that began at the feet of the Virgin of Covadonga and culminated in Granada in 1492. 

And above all, Lepanto: on October 7, 1571, before the fleets met in the Gulf of Corinth, the Christian troops of the Holy League — with soldiers from the Papal States, Venice, Genoa, and Spain, under the command of Don Juan of Austria — prayed the rosary with devotion. 

St. Pius V prayed it at the same time in Rome. 

The victory was attributed to the intercession of the Virgin, and from that the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was born. 

Spain is not a country that needs to be told what the rosary is: it is a country that carries in its memory what the rosary has sustained.

Receiving Leo XIV, therefore, is not merely receiving a head of state or the protagonist of a timely encyclical. 

It is recognizing in him the same trust that underpins our own spiritual history.

Gaudí, the Canaries, and a concrete invitation

Within a broad program, the Holy See has already confirmed two eloquent signs. 

In Barcelona, the pope will inaugurate the new and tallest tower of the Sagrada Família, on the centenary of Antoni Gaudí’s death. 

It will continue what Benedict XVI began in 2010 when he consecrated that church: beauty placed entirely at the service of faith, which is also a form of prayer. 

And in Madrid, he will address the Cortes Generales—not as a political leader, but as the guiding light our society needs.

The bishops have asked that the visit be prepared with prayer, conversion, and “interior availability.” 

The simplest, most Spanish, and most faithful way to what unites the two Leos has a name that fits in the palm of a hand: the rosary. 

Monsignor González Chaves’s book — prologued by Francisco Pérez González, Archbishop Emeritus of Pamplona and Tudela — is, in this sense, much more than an occasional work. 

It is a guide to understanding, and to living, what will take place in June. 

Its prologue says it better than any summary: united to Mary through the rosary, from Leo XIII to Leo XIV, we walk with hope toward Christ.

Spain does not await only a pope. It awaits the opportunity to pray once again as a Church. 

And it already has, printed, the map of that path.

Spanish Congress will gift Leo XIV with a 15th-century prayer manuscript

The Bureau of the Congress of Deputies has agreed to present Pope Leo XIV with a facsimile of the Liber Horarum (Book of Hours), one of the oldest and most valuable manuscripts preserved in the Lower Chamber’s bibliographic collection, on the occasion of the Pontiff’s visit to Congress scheduled for June 8.

Although parliamentary sources indicate that Leo XIV does not usually accept institutional gifts, the governing body of the Congress has decided to mark his visit with the reproduction of an exceptional work from Spain’s bibliographic heritage: a 15th-century religious codex produced before the invention of the printing press.

A prayer book reserved for kings and nobles

The Liber Horarum belongs to the tradition of the so-called books of hours, works intended to accompany the daily prayer of the faithful. 

For centuries they were among the most widespread instruments of devotion among the European Christian nobility, as they gathered psalms, biblical readings, Marian prayers and other texts meant to sanctify the different hours of the day.

These manuscripts were commissioned by kings, princes and members of the high aristocracy because of the enormous cost involved in their production. 

Each copy was unique and required the work of scribes, miniaturists and specialized illuminators, becoming true works of art as well as instruments of piety.

The copy preserved in the Congress of Deputies dates from the 15th century and was made before the appearance of Gutenberg’s printing press. 

Its historical value lies precisely in the fact that it was entirely handmade, at a time when every book was the result of long and careful artisanal work.

A bibliographic jewel kept in a safe

The original is preserved under strict security measures in the Congress’s storage facilities. 

Due to its extraordinary historical and artistic value, it remains safeguarded inside a safe alongside other notable pieces of the institution’s bibliographic heritage.

The volume has dimensions similar to those of a modern pocket book. 

Its leather covers enclose a wooden structure reinforced with ribs and metal clasps that allow the manuscript to be kept completely closed, a feature typical of medieval codices.

The cover itself constitutes a remarkable work of art. 

At the center of the frontispiece stands an image of the Virgin Mary framed by careful ornamentation, reflecting the deep religious inspiration that gave rise to the work.

Art and faith on every page

Beyond its devotional content, the Liber Horarum stands out for the richness of its illustrations. 

Among its pages are preserved seven illuminated plates in which the text is surrounded by elaborate decorative borders featuring human figures, vegetal motifs and mythological elements.

The pigments used for the colors, the inks, the ornamental details and even the Gothic calligraphy were all produced by hand, testimony to an era in which the creation of a book demanded the patient work of true artists.

The choice of this work as a gift for Leo XIV also carries a marked religious symbolism. Books of hours were for centuries one of the most characteristic expressions of Western Christian spirituality and helped bring the Church’s liturgical prayer closer to the daily life of the faithful.

With this gesture, Congress has sought to link the Pontiff’s visit to one of the most representative pieces of its historical heritage, a manuscript that reflects the profound mark Christian faith has left on European culture over the centuries.

Archdiocese of Mexico elevates one of its most emblematic Marian churches to the status of sanctuary

The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, one of the most emblematic temples in Mexico City and the center of a deeply rooted Marian devotion, will be officially elevated to the status of sanctuary by decision of Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, Primate Archbishop of Mexico.

The news was announced through a decree signed by the cardinal himself, in which he states that the decision was adopted on April 29 after consulting the Presbyteral Council. 

With this measure, the Archdiocese of Mexico recognizes the spiritual importance this temple has acquired over the years as a place of pilgrimage and prayer for thousands of the faithful.

A recognition of decades of popular devotion

In the document, Aguiar Retes recalls that sanctuaries occupy a special place in the life of the Church, since they arise from popular piety and offer the faithful privileged spaces for prayer, conversion, and encounter with God.

The future status of sanctuary represents the official recognition of a reality that has long been lived around the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in San Ángel. Generations of Catholics have come to this temple to entrust themselves to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, one of the most widespread and beloved Marian titles in the Catholic world.

The Primate Archbishop also took the opportunity to thank the work of the Carmelite friars, who for decades have been responsible for the pastoral care of the site. 

According to the decree, their work has decisively contributed to rooting the devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel and to making the temple a spiritual reference point for numerous faithful.

The ceremony will be held in July

The official erection of the sanctuary will take place on July 15 at seven in the evening, the eve of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

The celebration will also coincide with the jubilee of the 75th anniversary of the pontifical coronation of the image venerated in the temple, an especially significant milestone for the Carmelite community and for the devotees of this Marian title.

The ceremony will be presided over by Monsignor Héctor Mario Pérez Villarreal, auxiliary bishop of Mexico and secretary general of the Mexican Episcopal Conference, who will act on behalf of Cardinal Aguiar.

A prayer for peace in the Holy Land

In his message, the cardinal invited all the faithful of the archdiocese to participate in this celebration and asked that the event be lived under the protection of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

He also encouraged offering this day of prayer for peace in the Holy Land, a region historically linked to the origins of the Carmelite Order and of a Marian devotion that, centuries later, continues to awaken deep devotion among Catholics throughout the world.

With this decision, the Primatial Archdiocese of Mexico adds a new sanctuary to its spiritual heritage and officially recognizes the pastoral relevance of one of the best-known centers of Marian devotion in the Mexican capital.

French laywoman releases memoir accusing priest of sexual abuse

On Thursday, a French laywoman released a memoir in which she accused a priest of the Emmanuel Community of sexually abusing her over a period of several years.

Claudine Blanchard, a consecrated laywoman of the Emmanuel Community, released her book A Red Sofa: From Control to Freedom, in which she alleges a priest called “Father B.” sexually abused her.

“Under the influence of a priest, I was abused for ten years without even knowing it,” she says in the book, alleging the abuse started in 2003 and took place in L’Île-Bouchard and Paray-le-Monial, where there are sanctuaries run by the Emmanuel Community.

French Catholic newspaper La Croix has said that by cross-referencing the information in the book, and speaking to members of the community, it presumes “Father B.” is Father Bernard Peyrous.

Peyrous is a priest from the Diocese of Bordeaux and a former member of the community, who is being formally investigated for rape and sexual assault against adult women. 

He denies criminal wrongdoing and is presumed innocent.

“Father Bernard Peyrous has acknowledged having had relationships incompatible with the priesthood, but he denies having acted in violation of criminal law,” Peyrous’ lawyer, Charles Dufranc, told La Croix.

WEDDING RIP-OFF: 36 MORE COUPLES AFFECTED

GARDAÍ and Interpol are investigating the Tenerife wedding planner accused of ripping off dozens of couples for hundreds of thousands of euro, the Irish Daily Mail can reveal.

The news comes just days after the Mail revealed an Irish couple lost €26,000 when British wedding planner Claire Lopez announced her business was insolvent.

A conservative estimate of money owed to nearly 40 couples who had paid towards their big day is €350,000, sources said.

Sorcha McManigan and her fiancé Alan Kent, both 31, had been planning their perfect day for over two years and flew, on three occasions, to look at venues in the Canary Islands. 

The couple contracted Ms Lopez, who runs the company Weddings In Tenerife, and had paid more than two-thirds of the €37,000 bill for their celebrations when they got an email last Friday saying the company was insolvent.

All of Ms Lopez’s social media accounts have since been deleted, as well as her official website. 

The Mail also understands that Ms Lopez is already on the radar of international policing agency Interpol through contacts made by other police forces around the world regarding her alleged behaviour.

Now, Ms McManigan is spearheading an ever-growing group of dozens of couples who have been left out of pocket by the planner in a bid to recoup the cash they had paid her. 

She told the Mail yesterday: ‘The gardaí and [the Department of] Foreign Affairs have been so good to us, bringing us through the next steps. We felt so alone at the start but they’ve been absolutely great.

‘We’re getting everything together for them and for international police. The people affected are from everywhere.

‘We have someone in every part of the world. Like, there’s a couple in Germany, one American, and then Irish and people from the UK. This is global.

‘We know of one bride who had sent over €925 worth of items in two suitcases for her wedding. She has pleaded with her [Lopez] to just drop them off somewhere but she hasn’t got any response from her.’

Gardaí will now seek Interpol’s help as part of the investigation into Ms Lopez. Complaints regarding the planner go back as far as 2022.

From the Garda perspective, officers here can contact the Canarian police force directly as well as using Interpol channels to exchange intelligence.

Speaking to the Mail yesterday, Ms McManigan said the number of people who had come forward since she shared her story has been ‘overwhelming’.

She said she did not want to identify other couples who were keen to maintain their privacy but added that there is an ever-increasing number of people contacting her regarding Ms Lopez.

She said: ‘We’re on about 36 couples out there but we’re looking for more people to come forward.

‘We’re slowly climbing up [with the numbers] and we are reaching out to those affected. There are also people got married previously as well and had used her.

‘People are very careful about talking about financial loss, especially in Ireland, but we want them to come forward and not to be embarrassed about it.’

She continued: ‘We did all our homework and still got burned. We’re on a mission now to get the word out and spread it far and wide and tell people to get in touch with us on social media.

‘We’re trying to find more people that have been affected because there’s an amazing group that we’ve put together to share resources and knowledge, just to try and make some sense of this.’

Ms McManigan said Tenerife police told two couples the issue is a civil matter.

Some are attempting to pool money together after being quoted thousands of euro from lawyers to take the case.

Ms McManigan, who is a civil servant, said she plans on marrying in Tenerife this September.

She added: ‘I can’t cancel the wedding, everyone’s got flights booked and accommodation booked and I don’t want people to lose money.

‘We’ve people flying in from the US, France and Ireland.’

Spain’s business registry shows that Weddings In Tenerife was incorporated in February 2023 and Claire Lopez is not the planner’s legal name.

Two directors are listed: Claire Louise Mary Oxenham and Lars Jensen, a Danish ex-biker who Ms McManigan says she was told was her wedding planner’s husband.

While couples who paid tens of thousands of euro had been told over email last week that the company would be filing for insolvency ‘as soon as our lawyer has prepared the necessary documents’, the business registry shows that as of yesterday evening the company was still active. 

The lack of communication has left Ms McManigan and Mr Kent ‘incredibly suspicious’ that they were defrauded rather than the company having gone bust, she said.

‘For the last two years she hasn’t paid any vendors, so we have no food, no DJ, no furniture, where did that money go?’ she asked.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said it ‘is aware of this case and has provided advice and assistance’.

Gardaí and Interpol were contacted for comment.

Woman raped by priest when she was pregnant says failures of justice system have left her ‘totally broken’

Mary McCarthy was pinned to the priest’s bed, begging him to stop. 

He had lured the 24-year-old, who was three months pregnant at the time, into his bedroom under the guise of giving her a book.

When she went to take the book from his hand, he shoved her down on the mattress and raped her.

“He never said anything,” she told the Irish Independent this week.

“I kept saying, ‘Stop, stop, stop, I’m pregnant’. But he didn’t. He raped me.”

More than 35 years later, Ms McCarthy’s memories of what happened to her that day remain vivid.

The attack wasn’t an isolated event. Two weeks after the rape, she accepted a lift home from the same priest. He raped her again.

“I never told anyone,” Mary said. “I buried it. Well, I thought I had buried it but it absolutely ruined my life.

“I never trusted anyone again, never valued myself really. And then there was everything that happened after that.

“The system... It is in no way focused on victims. It has totally broken me.”

Originally from Dunmore in Co Galway, Mary was an only child. Her father died when she was 11 and she described her relationship with her mother as difficult.

Despite the strained relations with her mother, Mary lived in the family home until her mid-20s and trained to be a hairdresser.

At the age of 24, she found herself pregnant.

Her relationship with the baby’s father had ended and Mary dreaded telling her mother, a devout Catholic, the news.

Without any siblings or close family members to confide in, she turned to one of her father’s old friends for guidance.

“He recommended I go and see this priest,” Ms McCarthy said. “He said he would help me, that he was someone who wouldn’t judge me. I had nowhere else to turn to, really.”

The family friend drove Ms McCarthy to the parochial house and for the first two meetings, she and the priest talked and drank tea in a small sitting room upstairs.

“Everything was fine,” Mary said. “There was never an issue. We talked a lot about my situation and he seemed to be very understanding. He never gave me any reason to think something was going to happen.”

On the third visit, Ms McCarthy felt something had changed.

“Straight away I noticed he was different. He seemed very agitated,” she said. “He never offered me a cup of tea or anything. He said he had a book for me to read and went into another room.

“He called me in, and I remember there was a bed up along the wall. He was standing at the side of it, beside the locker, and had a book in his hand.

“When I went over to take it, he grabbed me and shoved me on the bed. He never said anything.”

Ms McCarthy has no recollection of getting home that evening. She thinks the family friend must have driven her. “I didn’t tell anyone about what happened in the parochial house,” she said.

“Who was I going to tell? I just kept it to myself and blocked it out. About two weeks later, I was going to meet a friend in a coffee shop.

“She was going to drive me home that evening, but her car wouldn’t start. She rang her husband and he said he would come and get us.

“For some reason, I decided I was going to hitch a lift home. And off I went.”

Ms McCarthy walked to the main road out of the town and stuck out her thumb. 

A car pulled up beside her and to her horror she saw it was the priest. 

“I can still see it now,” she said. “I opened the car door and it was him. He told me to get in. I don’t know why, and I have questioned myself over and over every day since, but I got in.”

She said the priest drove about 12 miles down the road and pulled into a car park.

“He parked up so tight against a wall that I couldn’t open the passenger door,” she said.

“He raped me again. And then he turned around and he told me to get out of the car.

“He left me in the middle of nowhere, in the dark. I was hysterical... I had this fear in my mind that my child would be taken off me if I told anyone”

“He left me in the middle of nowhere, in the dark. I was hysterical.” Again, she told no one.

“I had this fear in my mind that my child would be taken off me if I told anyone,” Mary said.

“I just kept it to myself. I pushed it deep inside and tried to get on with it.”

Ms McCarthy gave birth to a baby girl in October 1990. She later married and had three more children.

She is now separated from her husband.

Despite her efforts to put what happened with the priest out of her head, the mental toll was significant.

“There was so much pressure on my mental health,” she said.

“I wore a mask. Anyone who knew me would say I was the life and soul, but inside I was a fragile wreck.

“It impacted my whole life. I had hopes and dreams of going back to college when the children were bigger and that all fell away. I just felt so worthless and humiliated inside.”

Then, 15 years after the attack, Ms McCarthy came face-to-face with the priest at a funeral.

“I was standing at that funeral home door, in the queue, and there he was,” she said.

“It was like a piece of the jigsaw puzzle just fitted into place. I was talking to a woman and he took off.”

She found out where he was living and phoned the house.

“About two weeks after seeing him at the funeral, I was like, ‘I’m going to confront you’ so I rang the number I got for him and I said straight out, ‘You and I need to talk’ – he knew exactly who I was,” she said.

They met in a car park. Ms McCarthy said he offered her a “financial donation” of €20,000 and suggested she spend it on counselling.

“I told him it wasn’t about money,” she said.

“I asked him why he did what he did to me and the answer I got was, ‘The devil took hold of me’.”

She said he rang her the following day and they arranged to meet again.

“He sat in my car and handed me an envelope with €10,000 cash in it,” she said.

“He got me to sign on church-headed paper that I received the money from him.”

She said they met for the final time a week later.

“I didn’t want to, but then I agreed because he said he was going to give me a letter of apology,” she said.

“He tried to give me another €5,000. I threw it back at him and said that it wasn’t about money.”

A few days later, she went to a garda station to report the rapes.

Ms McCarthy claims the initial investigation was “flawed” and that nobody took her mobile phone, which contained all the text messages between her and the priest, and voicemails he’d left for her.

A file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), but no case was brought against the priest.

Mary decided to take a civil case against him; the then Archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary; and Joseph Cassidy, who was Archbishop of Tuam from 1987 to 1994.

However, on the morning the case was to start in April 2010, Mary claims she was talked into accepting a settlement of €30,000. Two-thirds of that sum went to her legal team.

It later emerged that the lead detective in the investigation into the priest was himself sued over an alleged rape.

“What does that tell you about how my case was handled?” she said. “I was let down badly.”

Ms McCarthy believes the priest, who was asked to “step away” from all parish duties, is still alive and lives in the west. In a review of the case in 2022, the DPP once again declined to charge the priest, contrary to garda recommendations.

Although she was disappointed with the outcome, Ms McCarthy continued to seek answers from An Garda Síochána. 

Last November, she was finally granted a meeting with the new Garda Commissioner, Justin Kelly.

Ms McCarthy claims that during the meeting, Commissioner Kelly admitted she had not been treated as a victim and said what happened to her then would not happen now.

She also claims that the Commissioner apologised to her on behalf of the force.

“It was so important for me to hear that,” she said.

“It had taken such a fight to get to that point. Listening to the words, ‘You were not treated as a victim’, I found that very difficult because I always knew myself that I wasn’t treated as a victim.

“But when you hear it from the top it is very difficult.”

However, she claims that the Commissioner’s office has refused to give her the notes from that meeting or any written acknowledgment of the apology she says she received.

“I’m very upset and disappointed,” she said. “I was pleased when the Commissioner said what he said. But to refuse me the notes and to not put any of it in writing has caused me further pain.”

Ms McCarthy is working with James Brannigan, a retired PSNI detective who set up The Katie Trust in memory of murdered showjumper Katie Simpson.

Mr Brannigan said he felt Ms McCarthy’s request for a written apology was valid.

“There were systemic failings in this case,” he said. “An Garda Síochána can set the record straight now by publicly acknowledging that Mary should have been treated like a victim.

“Mary is unique in the sense that we [usually] only deal with deceased people, but it was harrowing to hear what she went through.

“I believe what has been said to her face-to-face should be formally written to her.”

The Irish Independent contacted the Catholic Church and An Garda Síochána, but neither replied to requests for comment.

Texas jury convicts Catholic priest of sexual assault

A jury in Texas has convicted a Roman Catholic priest charged with illegally exploiting his status as a clergyman to pursue sex with women to whom he was providing spiritual direction.

Eight women and four men found Anthony Odiong, 57, guilty of one charge of sexual assault in the first degree and two such counts in the second degree involving two women, each of whom testified during a trial that began with jury selection on Tuesday in Waco.

He could face life imprisonment on the first-degree charge after a sentencing phase involving the same jury that is scheduled to begin Monday. 

The second-degree charges could carry from two to 20 years in prison.

The jury deliberated for about two hours before coming to the verdict.

Odiong, who pleaded not guilty, had initially been charged with first-degree sexual assault of a third woman. 

But prosecutors Ryan Calvert and Liz Buice dismissed that aspect of the case after the woman – said to be in an “extremely emotionally fragile” state – failed to show up to her expected appearance on the witness stand. 

The prosecution opted against essentially tracking her down and arresting her to ensure she appeared in court, citing her “extremely tenuous” emotional condition.

Odiong looked straight ahead as Judge Thomas West read the jury’s verdict and did not appear to react. He hung his head low and kept his eyes toward the ground as deputies led him out of the courtroom moments later.

The case against Odiong came after a Guardian article in February 2024 reported on a group of women who had accused the priest of sexual coercion, unwanted touching and abusive financial control in his capacity as a Catholic clergyman, including in and around Waco as well as a later assignment in the New Orleans suburb of Luling, Louisiana.

Texas considers such conduct by a religious cleric in particular to be felony sexual assault. 

And one of the women whom he was eventually charged in connection with – who chose the pseudonym Mary Doe – brought a copy of that Guardian article to Waco police and accused Odiong of having assaulted her in that manner in their jurisdiction over the course of three years beginning in 2008.

An ensuing police investigation found a second woman whom Odiong was ultimately charged with assaulting around that era while he worked in and around Waco, who adopted the pseudonym Jane Doe and had spoken to the Guardian for its February 2024 piece. 

It also produced a large enough number of additional Odiong accusers who met the legal standard of probable cause to afford Waco authorities the chance to arrest and formally charge him without regard for how long ago the crimes against Mary Doe and Jane Doe were said to have taken place.

Jurors heard Mary Doe testify to how Odiong commenced a years-long sexual relationship with her as he provided her spiritual direction amid a tumultuous divorce that left her with primary custody of seven children. 

In time, Mary Doe’s son walked in on her and Odiong having intercourse in her bedroom after a family party, she and her child testified during the trial.

Meanwhile, Jane Doe testified that she also submitted to spiritual direction from Odiong while in an abusive marriage. 

She said he compelled her to allow her then husband to engage in a form of intercourse which she found overly painful as a desperate measure to save her marriage – and to then convey details about the encounter to Odiong.

Prosecutors maintained that legally qualified as assault by Odiong, even if the intercourse did not directly involve him.

Both Mary Doe and Jane Doe testified to meeting Odiong while he was a priest at Waco’s St Peter Catholic Center, which was attended by Baylor University students and employees. 

Mary Doe and Jane Doe’s then husbands each worked at Baylor, putting them in proximity to the church and Odiong.

Furthermore, jurors heard about how Waco police investigators obtained DNA evidence establishing that Odiong in the spring of 2023 had fathered a child with a woman, assigned the pseudonym Presley Jones, to whom he provided spiritual direction while he was the pastor of St Anthony of Padua church in Luling.

Odiong is not accused of a crime against Jones because Louisiana does not have a law like the one under which he was prosecuted in Texas.

Nonetheless, authorities maintained that the daughter of Jones and Odiong is living, breathing proof of his pattern of pursuing sex with female parishioners whom he met through his clerical work.

Jurors heard expert testimony that it is clergymen’s responsibility – not those under their spiritual direction – to preserve boundaries, including Catholic priests’ promise to be sexually celibate.

Odiong’s attorneys, Gerald Villarial and Carolina Truesdale, on Friday called just one witness to testify to the former priest’s character. 

The witness, a former parishioner, testified briefly about attending the 2011 party that Odiong attended at Mary Doe’s home – and on cross-examination admitted that the former priest’s actions did not live up to expectations of a faith leader.

“Did you know that Father Anthony was really father Anthony,” Calvert said, alluding to the fact that he was a father in the biological sense.

“Just what I read in the paper,” the witness said. “Yes.”

A second witness was subpoenaed by defense attorneys but did not appear at the courthouse or on Zoom. 

After nearly an hour of waiting, Judge Thomas West ordered local sheriff’s deputies to effectively arrest the man and force him to testify. 

Still, after a lunch break, the defense chose not to call the second witness to the stand.

In closing arguments, Truesdale and Villarial attempted to cast doubt on the credibility of the women Odiong is accused of assaulting. Truesdale repeatedly called it a “dating relationship”.

“Is this man a cult leader? Did this man put them in a compound?” Truesdale said. “There is a responsibility on the women as well.”

In his own closing arguments, Calvert pushed back against that characterization of Odiong’s sexual acts.

“This wasn’t a guy who fell in love, these weren’t star-crossed lovers. This was a pattern. This was deliberate,” Calvert said. “His weapon was faith. Devout faith. Sincere faith.”

A naturalized US citizen, Odiong was ordained into the Catholic priesthood in 1993 in his native Nigeria. 

He transferred to a region encompassing Waco in 2006 under the watch of the then Austin, Texas, bishop Gregory Aymond.

Odiong subsequently studied overseas in Rome and arrived in Luling in 2015, several years after Aymond had become New Orleans’s archbishop.

By 2019, Austin church officials said they suspended Odiong from being able to minister in that area over allegations of misconduct with multiple women. 

They did not clue the public into that decision but said they alerted their New Orleans counterparts. 

Aymond then waited until late 2023 to announce that he had similarly suspended Odiong from ministering within his archdiocese.

The February 2024 Guardian story that Mary Doe turned in to Waco police was a follow-up to the news of Odiong’s New Orleans suspension.

Aymond retired as New Orleans’s archbishop in February, a couple of months after the city’s archdiocese and its insurers agreed to pay $305m to abuse survivors to settle a bankruptcy protection case that the church organization filed amid the financial fallout of the decades-old Catholic clergy molestation scandal.

Odiong was the second priest to have served Luling’s St Anthony of Padua to be convicted of sexual violence in less than two years.

In December 2024, retired Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and raping a boy in 1975 at a New Orleans church. 

The 93-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment and died all within that same month.

Hecker served at St Anthony in 1974, according to personnel records the Guardian has reviewed.

Three other New Orleans archdiocese clerics pleaded guilty to sexually violent crimes in the aftermath of the organization’s bankruptcy protection case.

Odiong’s trial played out against the backdrop of a debate within the Catholic church over whether to widen the definition of a vulnerable adult in the context of clergy abuse.

The church presently only considers a vulnerable adult to be anyone who is older than 18 while having “severe, intellectual, developmental or psychological disabilities”. 

Some would like to see that definition broadened to cover adults under the spiritual authority of priests who then initiate sex with them.

Modern Catholic church policies clearly define sexual misconduct with vulnerable adults or children as clergy abuse.

Belarusian archbishop highlights growing priest shortage

The president of the Belarusian bishops’ conference said this week that the number of priests in the country is diminishing, making the provision of pastoral care increasingly challenging in the eastern region.

Archbishop Iosif Staneuski of Minsk-Mohilev told Vatican News’ Belarusian service that the priest shortage made it difficult to realize plans to establish a Belarusian Catholic pastoral center in Rome, known as the Belarusicum.

The interview with Belarus’ leading churchman, published May 28, offered a rare insight into the current state of the Church in the predominantly Orthodox Eastern European country, which has a population of around 9.5 million and borders Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

A 2016 state survey estimated that Catholics form 6% of the population, though the proportion may be higher. 

Many have an ethnic Polish background and most are Latin Catholics.

Staneuski, who was in Rome to attend the May 25-28 plenary assembly of the Italian bishops’ conference, said it would be hard to send priests to oversee a proposed Belarusian pastoral hub, based in a Rome parish, because clergy were needed at home.

He said that in the eastern Mogilev region, one priest had to travel hundreds of kilometers between the three parishes he served.

He also noted that priests from Poland, who have worked in Belarus for decades, are increasingly unable to extend their stay in the country, leading to the loss of experienced clergy.

Tensions between the governments of Poland and Belarus rose after the controversial re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in 2020, which sparked mass protests, and the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, facilitated by Belarus.

As relations with Poland deteriorated, the Belarusian government began to view Polish priests with rising suspicion. 

Human rights groups reported this month that three Polish priests serving in the Vitebsk diocese and five in the Minsk-Mogilev archdiocese were refused permission to extend their residency.

Staneuski discussed the possibility of recruiting priests from further afield than Poland, including Africa and Asia. 

He said there was theoretically no barrier to this step, despite differences of culture and language, but the Belarusian Catholic community should aim to be self-sufficient.

“Every family, state, and Church is a family of families,” he commented, appealing to families to promote priestly vocations.

Publicly available statistics for Belarus’ four Latin Catholic dioceses end in 2022-2023 and therefore do not give the current picture described by Staneuski. 

The figures show an overall growth in the number of priests in the first decades of the 21st century, pointing to the continued resurgence of the local Church following the collapse of communism in 1991.

But there are marked differences between dioceses. 

The best-supplied diocese is Grodno, which is located in the west of the country, where the Catholic presence has traditionally been strongest. 

But even there the total number of priests has plateaued since 2016.

The three dioceses that cover the east of the country — Minsk-Mohilev, Vitebsk, and Pinsk — have markedly few priests. This is especially challenging for Minsk-Mohilev, which is geographically the second-largest diocese in Belarus, after Pinsk, and has the worst ratio of Catholics per priest. 

The further reduction in the number of priests in the archdiocese described by Staneuski is likely to have increased the pastoral burden on remaining clergy.

Welcoming priests from Africa and Asia is a possibility for the Church in Belarus. But there are significant obstacles. 

The clergy would likely undergo state vetting, might struggle initially with the Belarusian language, and would need to immerse themselves in the country’s distinctive culture and history to be pastorally effective.

Excommunication communication: What if the SSPX does a schism?

As the Society of St. Pius X moves forward with plans to consecrate several bishops without a papal mandate, Church leaders in Rome and further afield have begun to consider the implications.

The society’s leadership announced this week the names of four men who are slated to receive consecration at the hands of the society’s bishops, who themselves were illicitly consecrated in 1988.

As the SSPX has continued to insist the consecrations will proceed despite repeated warning from the Holy See that such an act is constituted an excommunicable offense in canon law, the superior, Rev. Davide Pagliarani, has laid out the society’s self-justification for its actions and continued existence.

In response, the Vatican has reminded the SSPX leadership that their theological and ecclesiological arguments are themselves sufficiently opposed to Church teaching and authority as to make the consecrations acts of schism, a second canonical crime also carrying the penalty of excommunication.

Crucially, a statement from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith noted that “formal adherence to the schism constitutes a grave offence against God and entails the excommunication established under Church law.”

A Vatican legal interpretation cited by the DDF clarified that “formal adherence” and therefore excommunication would be difficult to determine broadly in members of the laity who attended SSPX churches and liturgies, even frequently, and could only be considered on a case-by-case basis.

However, as regards priests and deacons of the society, the Vatican’s legal opinion held that “it seems clear that their ministerial activity within the schismatic movement is a more than evident sign that the two requirements mentioned above (n. 5) are met and that there is therefore a formal adherence,” and therefore the latae sententiae excommunication for schism.

While the Vatican’s canonical advice might be, in some senses, clear enough, the necessary consequences in the event the consecrations go ahead remain somewhat unclear. 

And among diocesan bishops with SSPX clergy and churches in their territories, questions have begun to be raised about who can and should do what, in the event of the consecrations and acts of schism.

In the now likely event that the SSPX does go ahead, the overwhelming priority of the Holy See, and the pope personally, is likely to be the fate of the laity who have associated themselves, formally or informally, with their network of churches.

A number of options might be considered by Pope Leo to help foster the “generous provision” for Catholics attached to the old rite of the Mass which he has previously called for among diocesan bishops.

If one or more of those options could be said to represent an effort to “pull” Catholics out of the SSPX orbit and keep them within the communion of the Church, though, the Vatican will likely have to consider a number of “push” options against the SSPX hierarchy and clergy, who have laid out arguments to persuade laity within their orbit that the society is a spiritually credible moral authority relative to Rome.

The most immediate and most likely step will be a formal declaration of the schism and excommunications incurred by those directly participating in the episcopal consecrations scheduled for July. 

This would likely follow the lines of a similar declaration issued by Pope St. John Paul II in 1988.

However, were the Vatican to stop there, it could set up a potential grey area for society clergy to exploit and confuse Catholics about the nature and status of the SSPX. 

They could, for example, argue that a limited declaration of schism only pertaining to the bishops means that the priests of the society (and therefore their ministry) is not schismatic nor subject to canonical sanction — and thus Catholics could continue to attend SSPX liturgies without qualm of conscience.

This confusion would be substantially compounded if Leo were to not revoke the general faculties extended by Pope Francis to SSPX priests allowing them to hear confessions and witness Catholic marriages.

Such faculties, being granted by the pope, would need to be revoked by a similar papal act and could be argued to remain in force even if SSPX clerics would, according to standing Vatican legal advice, meet the criteria for “formal adherence” to schism.

Below the level of direct papal action, though, a number of other canonical and pastoral options remain on the table for various levels of Church authority to consider.

At the level of the Holy See, it is possible for the DDF to issue a further declaration that the society is, following the July consecrations, itself in a state of schism. The Vatican could then expressly forbid Catholic clergy from ministering in its churches or through its organization, and bar laity from seeking the sacraments from those who do so.

While this would be superficially straightforward to write, it does contain something of a canonical wrinkle, in as much as the Holy See does not recognize the SSPX as a “society” legally speaking — that is to say the Church does not accept it as a legitimate organization in the Church or recognize it as existing in canon law.

The Vatican has and does speak of the society as a “real thing,” in as much as it recognizes its leadership as speaking for a self-identified group. But from a strictly canonical standpoint, it would seem like Rome would first have to recognize the existence of the society qua legal body in order to outlaw it as schismatic.

Absent the formal recognition of the SSPX, and thus the legal rationale for acting against its members as a group, any canonical treatment of the SSPX clergy would have to proceed on a more local or even case-by-case individual basis.

Put simply, the DDF does not have the manpower and resources — and is unlikely to want to acquire or devote them — to compile and process a complete list of SSPX clergy and make individual declarations regarding their formal adherence to schism and incurring of an excommunication.

However, the challenge here would seem to be logistical, not a complexity of cases. The existing Vatican legal advice is that “ministerial activity within the schismatic movement is a more than evident sign” of schism sufficient to declare an excommunication — meaning that it is the volume of cases globally that presents the challenge, even if each individual case is open and shut, from a legal perspective.

But simply leaving the existing legal opinion unenforced would itself create the potential pastoral confusion already discussed.

Instead, a more practicable option might be for the DDF to release a more explicit statement on the exact status and canonical consequences of ministry by clerics in the SSPX, and make clear the precise terms under which, for example, an excommunication for schism could and should be declared regarding its priests.

Such a statement could then be taken up by those bishops at the diocesan level when and where they perceive there to be a pressing pastoral need for action.

As importantly, the practical administrative burden for a diocesan bishop to identify SSPX clerics operating with the diocesan territory out of the society’s churches and issue the necessary declaration of the automatic excommunications for schism having been incurred would be of a much more manageable scale.

A final potential option open to the hierarchy would be for diocesan bishops to proscribe the SSPX as a forbidden society at the level of particular law, basically recognizing it as an organization outside of the Church and incompatible with the faith.

This is slightly different, in an important way, from, for example, the DDF declaring the entire SSPX to be a schismatic society, since to go into schism one must start from a position of communion, and since the SSPX does not legally exist within the Church is cannot, as a group, be said to have left it.

A prohibited society, on the other hand, is the canonical designation of an external group, membership of which can then be punished canonically up to and including with an excommunication as deemed appropriate by the legislator.

Exactly such a designation was made by the U.S. Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1996, in a law which banned Catholics from joining a range of prohibited societies under pain of excommunication, with the SSPX listed along with the Freemasons and Planned Parenthood.

While SSPX sympathizers would no doubt strongly dispute being legally classed alongside masonic lodges and abortion providers, it is worth noting that the legitimacy of the Lincoln law was appealed to Rome at the time; it was upheld by the Vatican and the law remains in force in the diocese.

In the event that the SSPX consecrations do proceed as planned in July, there will be, in all likelihood, a reflexive aversion among many in the Church to imposing or declaring penalties against any but the most necessary and narrow number of people.

This is culturally and historically understandable. In the years since the Second Vatican Council, the predominant current of thought within Church leadership has often appeared to consider canonical discipline as opposed to “pastoral concern,” rather than the two being necessarily linked.

However, the series of statements from the Vatican concerning the consequences of the planned SSPX consecrations suggest that, under Pope Leo, due process and clear application of the law is a priority.

The real test for local bishops, and the real message for local Catholics, will come as those consequences are or are not brought into force.

Having clearly and explicitly laid out the nature and danger of the SSPX’s schismatic manifesto, if the Church’s hierarchy declines to match its words with actions, it could leave many seeing the SSPX’s own actions as a schism without effects, and thus no schism at all.

This is, ironically, very close to what the SSPX leadership argue.