by Leslie C. Griffin* Do You Know About the Orphanage? St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont was open from 1854-1974. It closed a long time ago. Yet over the years since 1974, survivors of abuse by its Catholic nuns and priests came forward with their tales of orphanage horror. Today St....
by Leslie C. Griffin* There is one Roman Catholic diocese in Vermont, the Diocese of Burlington.1 On September 30, 2024, Kevin O’Connor reported that the diocese had gone into bankruptcy, becoming the fortieth Catholic organization to do so.2 In the bankruptcy papers, Bishop John McDermott of the...
by Leslie C. Griffin* You have probably read more about abuse and abusers in my last four blog posts than you believed was even possible. It is an exhausting list. Yet there are still many more cases before us, even now, in 2024. As the statutes of limitations change, new cases begin in...
by Leslie C. Griffin* An option to a civil case filed against a defendant is for the defendant to settle the case. There is a long trail of settlements to trace in the Massachusetts abuse cases. Settlements often occurred because of the statutes of limitations, and because Massachusetts lawyers...
by Leslie C. Griffin* In blog post 2 I told you about the criminal cases against church personnel. They also faced many civil cases, as the courts decided who should be held liable for abuse. The abuser, certainly. But what about the bishops, cardinals, archdiocese and dioceses who employed and...
by Leslie C. Griffin* In my first Massachusetts blog post, I explained why reporting requirements, statutes of limitations, and charitable immunity blocked many lawsuits against Catholic abusers. Although some abusers escaped liability because of those protections, many Catholics were convicted of...
by Leslie C. Griffin* Introduction Have you seen the movie? Spotlight won the Academy Award for best picture in 2015. That film tells the story of the Boston Globe reporters who investigated sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Massachusetts. The abuse story was unbelievable, yet true. To...
2024 Voice of the Voiceless Award Honorees Leila Wills, Manuel J. Oquendo, and Pierre Stallings CHILD USA honors Leila Wills, Manny Oquendo, and Pierre Stallings with the 2024 Voice of the Voiceless Award. The award recognizes them for using their voices to speak out for the victims of child...