Bigots: Rhode Island AG Peter Neronha
and Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory

It took over seven years, but he finally got the press conference he always craved.

Back in 2019 (!), we reported how Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha was among several AGs across the country seeking to replicate the public relations triumph that Pennsylvania's AG Josh Shapiro garnered in 2018 with his blockbuster "grand jury report" that gained international attention.

Well, Neronha's day in the sun finally came to pass last week when he released a 284-page tome (pdf) claiming to chronicle abuse by priests in his state in the Diocese of Providence. But to say that Neronha's report was underwhelming would be an overstatement.

Nothing new in the report

Even by Neronha's own admission, his office scoured records dating back "three-quarters of a century" to 1950, when Harry S. Truman was President and Bing Crosby still ruled the charts. In other words, this was a history report by any standard.

Neronha surprisingly admits that "clergy sexual abuse in Rhode Island appears to have peaked in the 1960s and 1970s and to have declined since" and that "no credibly accused abuser priest is currently serving in active ministry in the Diocese of Providence." And nearly 97% of alleged abuse occurred between 1950 to 1997, and 42% before 1972.

But most notably, he admits that of the 75 accused priests listed in the report, 64, or 85%, were deceased and thus no longer around to defend themselves. And if that important tidbit were not enough, Neronha then had the gall to fault the Diocese of Providence for both not investigating claims against long-dead priests but also for "destroying confidential files following priests' deaths unless there was pending litigation involving the priests."

Imagine that. The diocese did not investigate cases in which the principle actor is already dead, and then it destroyed personnel records of dead employees just like very other institution on the planet, which it is allowed to do under the law. Powerful stuff, Pete.

But here comes the Boston Globe

But leave it to the nation's premier anti-Catholic newspaper, The Boston Globe, to treat Neronha's report as if it were on par with the Apollo Moon landing.

The Globe naturally published no less than six items about Neronha's report over a period of just a few days, and that does not include the paper's glowing profile of Neronha just days after the report.

The Globe, in particular, trumpeted Neronha's claims about "credible allegations" against a priest named Rev. Francis Santilli. But what neither Neronha nor the Globe told the public was that the diocese thoroughly investigated the claims against Santilli years ago and found them not credible, even by the diocese's very lenient standards.

Pushing back

While this is just a same-old, tired attack on the Catholic Church, we want to give kudos to Bishop Bruce Lewandowski of the Diocese of Providence for responding to AG Neronha's bogus report.

Lewandowski reminded the public that the diocese voluntarily agreed to give Neronha all of its personnel files in the name of transparency, and "any view that there is an on-going crisis within this diocese which requires urgent intervention is debunked by the fact that the Report took nearly seven years to be publicly released." Boom.

Lewandowski also noted, "The Report itself reveals no evidence of recent child sexual abuse by clergy, no credible accusations against those in ministry today, and no instances of the diocese's failure to meet its legal reporting obligations." And the diocese added, "the Report itself states that it 'did not produce evidence of any recent child sexual abuse by clergy'." Checkmate.

Maybe the next time some publicity-hungry attorney general goes knocking on the door of a chancery to see a diocese's personnel files, the bishop should tell the guy to take a hike.

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Recommended reading:
- 'Diocese of Providence Response to the Attorney General Report' by Bishop Bruce Lewandowski
- 'Two wrongs don't make a right: Denying due process to accused clergy is not how to mend mistakes' (23 Feb 2026) by Fr. Thomas Kocik (Substack)
- 'Where the Dallas Charter Went Wrong' (23 Feb 2026) by Michael J. Mazza (First Things)

It's raining taxpayer money in California.

More than 1,100 abuse lawsuits since just 2020 … $700 million in abuse settlements with projections reaching as high as $3 billion … Decades-old accusations dating back to the 1970s.

Sound familiar? Of course. But in this case, a recent investigation (archive link) by the Los Angeles Times is not referring to the Catholic Church but about abuse accusations in California public schools.

A familiar story with a new name

The Times' investigation details how the majority of abuse accusations arose as a result of California legislation called AB 218, which was passed in 2019 and lifted the state's statute of limitations for three years, allowing individuals to sue organizations for abuse no matter how long ago it allegedly occurred. And as we have reported before, California had passed similar legislation in the past that allowed individuals to sue the Catholic Church and the like but not public institutions no matter how long ago the alleged abuse occurred. That cost the Catholic Church some $2 billion. But AB 218 changed this, making public school districts now vulnerable to lawsuits claiming abuse by educators from many decades ago.

Well, as the Times chronicles, the results of the lawsuits against school districts have been predictable: Districts were forced to sell properties, trim staffing, and cut programs. Again, this should sound familiar to anyone who has followed the Catholic Church sex abuse story for the past two decades. The Times quoted the superintendent of one small California school district:

"The district will be living with this for years … It's unreasonable to expect a district that is small like ours — with $42 million in our operating budget, of which we spend 86% on staffing … that we should be totally responsible for something that happened in 1970."

Of course, without an ounce of public or media sympathy, exasperated Catholic laity and leadership have expressed similar sentiment for the past two-plus decades, as the Church in the United States has been forced to dole out billions in settlements to accusers over claims from forever ago often with respect to long-dead priests and over claims which were were frequently questionable and many times downright absurd.

The missing element: False accusations

So while we salute the Times for its excellent investigative work – a rarity in today's media landscape – we found it still failed to address an important question: Are the decades-old claims against educators actually true? While it is undeniable that some of the accusations are tragically valid, common sense alone would suggest that many fraudsters, flimflammers, and unscrupulous tort lawyers would seize on the statute of limitations to make phony old claims and score some big money.

But don't take our word for it. A different investigation (archive link) by the Times back in October accused a large Los Angeles law firm of the blatantly illegal practice of doling out cash to people for them to file lawsuits against Los Angeles County shelters and juvenile facilities accusing them of abuse decades ago. According to the Times:

Some plaintiffs say they were explicitly told to make up claims.

"They tell you what to say," said Carlshawn Stovall, 43, who said he was given about $20 by a vendor outside the benefits office to sue. "You're supposed to make it up." …

The vendor handed him a postcard-sized "script" of how to respond, he said. He didn't need to worry about getting fact-checked, the vendor told him, as the county had no records of who was in its facilities decades ago. It seemed "a good way to get some quick money," he said …

[Days later, the vendor's law firm] filed a lawsuit on his behalf alleging he was "sexually harassed and abused" by staff in Central Juvenile Hall. Stovall said he was never in juvenile hall — much less abused there.

What percentage of all of these old abuse accusations are bogus? Well, if decades-old accusations against Catholic priests are any indication, the vast majority are. According to the most recent independent annual audit report, only 7% of all historical accusations against Catholic priests in 2024 were even deemed "credible" by the lenient standards of diocesan review boards, with the majority of accusations deemed either "unsubstantiated" (indeed false), "unable to be proven," or still under review.

Kudos to the Los Angeles Times for its excellent reporting, but a larger story still needs to be told: Fraud and false accusations of abuse are rampant.

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Want to learn about the rampancy of false accusations against priests?:
- "The Great Shakedown Keeps A-Rollin': Phony Claims Continue at Epic Pace, Here Are The Facts" (January 2024)
- The Greatest Fraud Never Told: False Accusations, Phony Grand Jury Reports, and the Assault on the Catholic Church (Amazon.com)

What's the holdup?

The nightmareish story of Fr. Thomas Kocik, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River (Massachusetts), ordained in 1997, sadly continues. TheMediaReport.com first reported on this a year ago here, about another wrongfully accused priest struggling against the labyrinth of Church bureaucracy to clear his good name.

The backstory

At the end of 2021, Kocik was suddenly placed on administrative leave due to concerns that had been raised about "inappropriate behavior with minors." He immediately asked to know what he was accused of, who accused him, and when and where the alleged event(s) purportedly occurred. He was told vaguely that his questions would be answered in "due time." Kocik categorically denied any wrongdoing with minors or with anyone else.

Then, almost three years later, in October 2024, Bishop Edgar da Cunha placed Kocik on a list of "credibly accused" priests, jeopardizing Fr. Kocik's entire priesthood. But the diocese's announcement of the news gave almost no indication why he was placed on the list. Law enforcement has never charged Fr. Kocik with any sort of crime, nor has Kocik been the subject of any civil lawsuit. No accuser has ever come forward publicly, either anonymously or named.

TheMediaReport.com learned that the allegation against Kocik does not even involve sexual contact of any kind, attempted sexual contact, or even indecent exposure. Rather, the accusation involves allegedly exposing a minor to pornography a quarter century ago in the late 1990s, without any more details. But what exactly does that mean? Whom did he expose to pornography, when exactly did he do so, and what were the precise circumstances? The Church doesn't say. Without these details, it is impossible to defend against a gauzy but nevertheless career-ending accusation such as the one the diocese made against him.

Bishop abandonment

Bishop Edgar da Cunha : Diocese of Fall River

The diocese also cryptically stated that the "determination of credibility does not mean that Father Kocik has been found guilty in a court of law [but only that] it is a reflection that the allegation itself is credible or believable." Again: What does that mean exactly? So the diocese has stolen Fr. Kocik's entire livelihood from him based on a 25-year-old accusation that has been determined to be merely "believable"? In what other world would such an egregiously unfair and one-sided system of justice be permitted to rob the accused of all of their rights to due process and justice?

In addition, the bishop sent an email to fellow priests about Fr. Kocik and oddly said he was "saddened by the outcome of the case," as if Fr. Kocik has been tried and found guilty, when, in fact, that is not the case at all.

Good news: The Vatican weighs in

But there is good news. The Vatican Dicastery for the Clergy, in a decree dated March 3, 2025, (Prot. N. 2024 4337), determined that the severe restrictions imposed on Fr. Kocik's ministry are unjust and illegitimate under Church law. The decree explicitly revokes those restrictions, upholding Fr. Kocik's right to say Mass publicly, present himself as a priest in good standing, and otherwise exercise his Sacred Orders publicly.

In addition, the decree orders Bishop da Cunha to reimburse Fr. Kocik the expenses occurred in his canonical defense and, in view of the harm done to Father's good name, to publish the following statement:

"According to natural law and reaffirmed by canon law (can. 1321, §1), the Reverend Thomas M. Kocik is considered innocent until the contrary is proved in a penal process. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the only competent body to judge the accusations, declared on 12 April 2024 that the alleged delict [crime] is prescribed, and therefore the possibility of criminal action is extinct."

Yet … It is now November 2025, and Bishop Da Cunha has still to act on those directives! This past June, the diocese's chief general counsel notified Fr. Kocik's canon lawyer that Da Cunha was planning on appealing the decree to the Apostolic Signatura, the Catholic Church's highest court for such matters. It is not yet clear, however, whether the appeal was actually filed. [UPDATE: In mid-December, Fr. Kocik learned that the bishop did, in fact, file an appeal.]

And as if to add salt to Fr. Kocik's wounds, Da Cunha quite recently refused to provide a "letter of good standing" that would have enabled him (according to current protocol) to celebrate the Funeral Mass of his aunt, which took place in another diocese. (Clergy are required to show proof of good standing from their bishop or religious superior if they intend to perform public ministry outside their diocese.)

A need for change

In the story of Fr. Kocik, one cannot blame a publicity-seeking district attorney bringing criminal charges against a 90-year-old priest arising from claims from 60 years ago in order to get a career promotion. And nor can you blame a money-hungry contingency lawyer or left-wing hate group like SNAP looking to score big money on a spurious civil claim brought by a mentally challenged client.

Rather, the problem here is the Church's own broken system of justice in which the rights of the accused are wholly ignored and their careers stolen from them based on nothing other than an accusation being found to be merely "believable," no matter from how long ago. This entire notion of canonical "justice" has to change and change soon if the Church is going to be fair, as it must, to the many good men that have given themselves to Her and to Christ.

In Fr. Kocik's case, the Vatican rightly acknowledged that Father was denied due process. Permanent restrictions on a priest's ministry are legitimate only after a penal process has determined guilt, which is clearly not the case here.

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Want to learn about the rampancy of false accusations against priests?:
- "The Great Shakedown Keeps A-Rollin': Phony Claims Continue at Epic Pace, Here Are The Facts" (January 2024)
- The Greatest Fraud Never Told: False Accusations, Phony Grand Jury Reports, and the Assault on the Catholic Church (Amazon.com)

Captain Ahab: Robert Herguth of the Chicago Sun-Times

It's a simple fact we have stated numerous times before, but it bears repeating: The Catholic Church is the only institution on the planet where if you are an employee merely accused of some wrongdoing from decades ago, your name may end up on a public web site somewhere for the entire world to see forever as if you were an adjudicated child molester.

Think about that.

Now, thankfully, the Church is finally starting to awaken to the unfairness of this obviously unjust practice. In a letter (pdf) last September – which we also reported about earlier this year here – the Vatican determined that the publication of the names of priests merely accused of misconduct contradicts Canon Law and is unjust. The letter stated:

"[H]aving as an indispensable legal basis the statement of the Supreme Pontiff Francis according to which 'it is necessary to avoid the publication of the lists of the accused, even by the Dioceses, before the preliminary investigation and the definitive conviction,' the answer can only be negative with respect to the disclosure of hidden information concerning anyone, even more so when it concerns deceased persons."

But this seemingly common-sense decision by the Vatican did not sit well with Chicago Sun-Times investigative reporter Robert Herguth. Herguth's investigative beat in Chicago seems to be limited to ripping the Church over the issue of sex abuse by priests from many decades ago. While the media's interest in the abuse narrative has generally waned over the years as the story line has aged, the issue remains Herguth's white whale as he struggles to find new ways to criticize the Church over marginal or arcane practices related to the issue.

So, not surprisingly, Captain Ahab criticizes this new Vatican policy and writes in a recent story that not defaming merely accused priests on public web sites might be a sign that the Catholic Church may be headed "into a new era of secrecy."

Yet Herguth might want to give a moment of thought to the fact that taxpayer-funded Chicago Public Schools (CPS) – right in Herguth's own backyard – has openly admitted that it once logged a whopping 470 allegations of sexual misconduct by CPS employees just in the 2022 school year alone. And unlike with the Catholic Church, which involve allegations from decades ago, the potential crimes at CPS are happening today, as in right now.

And, most importantly, CPS has not even given thought of publishing any list of its merely accused employees. Why? Because to do so would be unjust to the merely accused, and CPS would immediately face a flurry of defamation lawsuits.

The hypocrisy in what is considered "news" at the Sun-Times and by Captain Ahab could not be any more obvious. But don't hold your breath that they come to this realization any time soon.

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Want to learn about the rampancy of false accusations against priests?:
- "The Great Shakedown Keeps A-Rollin': Phony Claims Continue at Epic Pace, Here Are The Facts" (January 2024)
- The Greatest Fraud Never Told: False Accusations, Phony Grand Jury Reports, and the Assault on the Catholic Church (Amazon.com)

The Association of United States Catholic Priests calls for due process for accused priests

The Association of United States Catholic Priests (AUSCP), a group with the self-described mission of providing a pastoral and collegial voice for priests, has a humble plea for the newly installed Pope Leo XIV: The Church needs to return to the practice of following Canon Law and respect the due process rights for priests accused of misconduct.

As this site has chronicled numerous times (1, 2 …), the ordeal which an accused priest has to endure is not only personally excruciating but also unnecessarily long and unwieldy. It is not uncommon for an accused priest's livelihood to remain in limbo for several years while his case plods along in needless bureaucracy and bloated Church administration.

The wrongdoing at hand

In its plea to Pope Leo as well as U.S. Catholic bishops, the group lists four major injustices that accused priests are facing today:

• The imposition of penalties before a priest has had the opportunity to even defend himself.
• Publishing the names of priests as 'accused' before substantial and verifiable evidence has been gathered and the investigation completed, including the naming of deceased priests who are unable to defend themselves.
• Continued freezing of priests from their ministry for long periods of time even when there is lack of credible evidence.
• Prolonged and opaque Vatican processes that can take years to reach a decision.

And the solution, according to the AUSCP, is quite simple: The Church merely needs to follow long-established Canon Law, which already has a process for accused priests in place. For example, Canon 1321 clearly states that not only is a priest "considered innocent until the contrary is proved," but that "no one can be punished" until guilt is established. Meanwhile, contrary to Canon 1321, bishops very often remove accused priests from ministry in a very public fashion even over the mere whiff of misconduct. The AUSCP explains:

"Strict adherence to Canons 1321, 1341, and 1362 is essential to preserving the integrity of the investigative process and restoring trust among the clergy that they are supported and valued by their bishops and the church. The embracement of due process, presumption of innocence, and the right to a good reputation is foundational to the achievement of justice. Equally true is an investigation completed swiftly and competently, thus affirming the legal maxim, 'justice delayed is justice denied,' which is applies to both the accuser and the accused."

Although this site does not support many of the positions of the AUSCP – for example, it has in essence called for the ordination of women – we salute the group's valiant efforts to address this badly broken system of justice when it comes to accused priests and allegations of misconduct. We wish them the very best in this important endeavor.

Documents from the AUSCP, all from this month:

• Letter to Pope Leo (pdf)
• Letter to U.S. Bishops (pdf)
• Press release (pdf)
• Position paper: "Moving Toward Restoring Justice For Priests" (pdf)

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Want to learn about the rampancy of false accusations against priests?:
- "The Great Shakedown Keeps A-Rollin': Phony Claims Continue at Epic Pace, Here Are The Facts" (January 2024)
- The Greatest Fraud Never Told: False Accusations, Phony Grand Jury Reports, and the Assault on the Catholic Church (Amazon.com)

Yes, nearly all anonymous accusations are bogus

To be clear: The media didn't make up the Catholic sex abuse story. Many decades ago now, a small minority of but still too many priests abused their authority and abused minors. Decades ago, however, the Church rectified her past mistakes and put reforms in place to ensure it didn't happen again.

But the story didn't end there. Fueled by hatred of the Church, it was only the beginning of the media's frenzy of obsessive and endless coverage of the issue.

Abetted by sleazy trial lawyers looking for a quick buck, a whole panoply of kooks and frauds emerged to bring claims against often long-dead priests to cash in on the media-driven frenzy. Central to it all was one thing: They could bring their claim wholly anonymously and suffer no public embarrassment while defaming often innocent priests. And if a case went to trial, which was extremely rare, and the plaintiff had to disclose their identity in court, every media outlet nonetheless agreed to protect their identity from public disclosure.

A ray of common sense

It was all upside with no downside from the plaintiff's perspective. And as we have emphasized many times in past posts, the whole scheme was built upon the plaintiff's ability to bring their claims anonymously. So the following story came as a great irony to us.

A year after the progressive news outlet Pro Publica published a shocking investigation into the rampancy of false abuse accusations made by anonymous callers to New York's Child Protective Services (CPS), New York is now on the verge of passing a new law that would require CPS screeners to ask all callers for their contact information when they make an abuse claim.

According to Pro Publica:

"According to federal statistics, 96% of anonymous calls to child abuse hotlines are deemed baseless after an investigation. Among all allegations of child abuse or neglect, including non-anonymous calls, 83% are ultimately deemed unfounded."

Ninety-six percent. Completely bogus. Unreal.

Pro Publica's investigation also highlighted how parents' lives were completely upended by completely unnecessary home searches and investigations. "I was beyond scared. I literally started shaking," ProPublica quoted one falsely accused woman after police busted into her house at 5:30 in the morning looking for evidence of abuse.

Nothing new for Catholic priests

This is nothing new to the tens of thousands of Catholic priests who have endured the ordeal of a false accusation by an accuser looking for easy money while hiding behind anonymity. So many falsely accused priests have had their good reputations obliterated and their livelihoods shattered as accusers enjoy the shield of complete anonymity.

We hope the media and others think about this story in New York the next time some anonymous bloke comes forward to accuse a priest of abuse from many decades ago.

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Want to learn about the rampancy of false accusations against priests?:
- "The Great Shakedown Keeps A-Rollin': Phony Claims Continue at Epic Pace, Here Are The Facts" (January 2024)
- The Greatest Fraud Never Told: False Accusations, Phony Grand Jury Reports, and the Assault on the Catholic Church (Amazon.com)

Boomerang: NY politician gets bonked by the same law he passed to go after the Church.

It's remarkable how politicians can change their minds about the laws they pass once they are applied to themselves.

In 2022, the state of New York passed something called the Adult Survivors Act, which created a one-year "lookback window" enabling anyone to file a civil lawsuit against anyone for sexual abuse, no matter how long ago or wild the accusation, effectively temporarily suspending any civil statute of limitations. The 2022 legislation was nearly identical to New York's previous 2019 Child Victims Act, which also created a one-year window.

Ostensibly, the legislation was enacted to give "justice" to "victims," but everyone knew what the real purposes were: to line the pockets of tort lawyers friendly to Democrat politicians who would in turn send the money right back to those politicians in the form of campaign contributions.

No matter, of course, that these window statutes do grave violence to any notion of fairness, justice, or due process for the defendants targeted in these lawsuits. Institutions can be sued for any act alleged its employees committed at any time, many decades after the act occurred, memories have long faded, evidence destroyed, and even perpetrators long dead and therefore unable to defend themselves. It creates a de facto open season for any crank, charlatan, or con man to make a claim of abuse and score some easy cash. And it makes it essentially impossible for defendants to defend themselves.

'But, wait! That's unconstitutional!'

One of the politicians who voted for the 2022 law was a Brooklyn state senator by the name of Kevin Parker. At the time the law was passed, Parker was quoted as proudly supporting the law "to ensure [that] all New Yorkers can seek justice and be heard."

But then in 2023, a woman filed suit against Parker under the very law he voted for by claiming that Parker raped her some 20 years earlier.

Parker vehemently denies the claims against him. And now we learned this month that Parker's defense against the lawsuit against him is that the very law he once championed is now – wait for it – "unconstitutional." How rich.

Congratulations, Sen. Parker. You have now learned firsthand what literally thousands of wholly innocent Catholic priests have discovered over the past three decades: that it is nearly impossible to defend yourself against claims that were alleged to have occurred many decades ago.

Karma is really a b-+¢h indeed.

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Want to learn about the rampancy of false accusations against priests?:
- "The Great Shakedown Keeps A-Rollin': Phony Claims Continue at Epic Pace, Here Are The Facts" (January 2024)
- The Greatest Fraud Never Told: False Accusations, Phony Grand Jury Reports, and the Assault on the Catholic Church (Amazon.com)

Fr. Jay Fostner: A falsely accused priest shares his ordeal to help others

In the 20+ years of publishing our web site and spotlighting numerous cases of falsely accused priests, we have never encountered a case quite like that of Rev. Jay Fostner from Wisconsin. In the span of just a few years, 2018 to 2024, Fr. Fostner was:

• falsely accused of sexual abuse by a repeat accuser looking to score additional cash;
• falsely accused of mishandling sexual misconduct complaints while a vice president at St. Norbert College (De Pere, WI); and
• defamed multiple times on social media.

Multiple investigations were conducted into these accusations and found zero misconduct by Fr. Fostner. None at all. Nada. Niete. And while these ordeals were excruciating for Fr. Fostner, unlike the experiences of many other falsely accused priests, his story has an uplifting ending.

It all started a while back, when a pair of online zealots began spreading false information about Fostner on Facebook and in local media, claiming that the priest had mishandled complaints of sexual misconduct while at St. Norbert's. None of it was true, but the posts did real damage to Fostner's priesthood.

As a result of the online attacks, Fostner lost his job at St. Norbert's, and his reputation was in shatters. In effect, Fostner was canceled. But Fostner took matters into his own hands and sued the duo for defamation. And he won. [Read about the suits here and here.]

Not the end of the story

Uncanceled by
Rev. Jay Fostner

In addition to a personal retelling of his adversity, Fostner shares how a therapeutic approach called Meaning Reconstruction Therapy (MRT) and its emphasis on meaning-making can lead to recovery from trauma, such as that suffered from public defamation. The goal of recovering from public harm is, in the end, healing. As Fr. Fostner writes:

"I learned that healing is not just about clearing your name or proving your innocence. It is about reclaiming your identity, rediscovering your purpose, and allowing the trials you've endured to shape you into someone stronger and more compassionate." (p. 104)

In a world which often seems mired in both despair and condemnation, Fr. Fostner's book of encouragement and support is a much-needed breath of fresh air, and his work is a gift to the Church.

We hope others take notice.

The book: Uncanceled: Reclaiming Your Story by Rev. Jay Fostner, O. Praem., Ph.D.

Finally: The fraud has been exposed

It's been almost 20 years now. In January 2006, then-Fr. Dan McCormack of the Archdiocese of Chicago was removed from active ministry and later sentenced to five years in prison for groping several minor boys on the West Side of Chicago from 2001 to 2005.

From there, however, the story really took off, and the makings for a great fictional novel began.

It was the perfect storm: Fr. McCormack's parish served an impoverished black community desperate for any financial lifeline, the allegations were recent rather than historic, McCormack pled guilty to the groping allegations against him in return for the recommended five-year sentence, and the media frenzy over the "abuse crisis" was in full swing.

Thus, for nearly the past 20 years, dozens and dozens of accusers have come forward and filed lawsuits or made claims with the Archdiocese alleging that they were molested or raped by McCormack, and each progressive iteration of such claims have become more absurd, more implausible, and very obviously fraudulent. (The Illinois Attorney General's web site reports some 130 McCormack accusers.) And for many years now, Chicago media has dutifully reported the lurid details of each new crazy lawsuit without as much as a hint of skepticism regarding the veracity of the bogus allegations.

But the Archdiocese of Chicago also deserves an honorable mention because it was almost assuredly shoveling out many millions of dollars in confidential settlements to these folks which, in turn, only funded more litigation against it and attracted more crooks and fraudsters eager to claim that McCormack molested them too in order to make their own riches. It could well have been the greatest overall fraud perpetrated against the Catholic Church in this country, and yet the media sat by silently.

Worst kept secret

But the media knew was it was doing all along. It was a poorly kept secret in Chicago media for many years that the McCormack cases were almost entirely fraudulent, yet they published their stories anyway without question. As we wrote in a post here over seven years ago, in August of 2017:

"It has long been a poorly kept secret in the neighborhoods near St. Agatha Catholic Church and within the offices at the Archdiocese of Chicago that most, if not nearly all, of the abuse accusations lodged against ex-priest Daniel McCormack are completely bogus."

And now, years later, insiders now tell us that the Church in Chicago has paid out several tens of millions of dollars for phony claims regarding McCormack.

The full story has still yet to be publicly told, but the Chicago Tribune, who has published several dozen sensational articles on the McCormack case in the past two decades, is finally getting wind to the fact that there is serious fraud being perpetrated against the Church, especially in the McCormack case.

This past week, the Tribune reported that the Archdiocese of Chicago announced that it filed a lawsuit against a number of fraudsters who falsely claimed that they had been abused years ago by McCormack. Some of the fraudsters are actually on audio admitting that they had no connection or interaction with McCormack whatsoever but were eager to get in on the free cash that the Church was doling out.

One eager swindler was especially thrilled at the prospect of free cash "as long as [McCormack] ain't got to touch me for real."

Needless to say, these bogus claims are an incredible affront to genuine victims of abuse by priests many decades ago and to the pastoral response of the Church to victims.

Time for a new narrative

Here there is little doubt that a serious fraud has been perpetrated against the Church, but what it also signals is that far more investigation and coverage of this increasingly common type of fraud needs to happen.

Hopefully, next time it will not take many years of payouts on many dozens of phony claims – robbing the Church of resources to build the faith and serve the poor – before the media does its job and exposes its readers to the truth.

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Want to learn about the rampancy of false accusations against priests?:
- "The Great Shakedown Keeps A-Rollin': Phony Claims Continue at Epic Pace, Here Are The Facts" (January 2024)
- The Greatest Fraud Never Told: False Accusations, Phony Grand Jury Reports, and the Assault on the Catholic Church (Amazon.com)

The late Rev. J. Gregory Mulhall of the Diocese of Albany

In 2023, a chap came forward to the Diocese of Albany to claim that Fr. J. Gregory Mulhall "physically assaulted" him as a "vulnerable adult" many decades earlier.

A year later, just last year, the diocesan review board told Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger that it had concluded that the accusation against Mulhall was "credible" and that the priest should be added to its public list of "credibly accused priests."

What did Fr. Mulhall himself have to say about all of this? Well, Mulhall died at age 90 in 2001, nearly a quarter century ago, and had already retired back in 1985 after serving nearly a half century in ministry. Mulhall was ordained in 1937, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President.

A 'credible' accusation?

Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of the Diocese of Albany

It turns out that Mulhall's accuser had stormed into a church rectory back in 2016 and told the secretary that Mulhall had physically assaulted him back in the 1980s. The secretary immediately notified police, even though Mulhall was already long deceased by then. Police reports, our sources say, reveal that the accuser had little or no credibility and that the accuser had previously falsely accused a cousin of stalking him.

At the request of Fr. Mulhall's surviving family members, the diocese re-opened the investigation last year. But the diocese halted its new investigation after it learned that the accuser had died. But Fr. Mulhall will now remain on Albany's list of "credibly accused" priests, and the priest's reputation will remain sullied forever.

Opposing the will of the Vatican?

Many times over the years here at TheMediaReport.com, we have challenged the fairness of dioceses' publications of lists of "credibly accused" priests, whatever that means.

Well, it turns out that the Vatican has recently taken issue over these lists as well. In a letter (pdf) last September on this very topic, Vatican officials decried how "the determination of whether an accusation is 'founded' often rests on a non-canonical foundation and requires a relatively low standard of proof, involving the publication of the name of a person simply accused, but of an unproven accusation, without the benefit of any exercise of the right to defense."

The letter then concluded that these lists can be especially problematic "when it concerns deceased persons." Indeed. Deceased priests just like Fr. Mulhall.

The bottom line: Even the Vatican understands that these lists are an affront to any sense of fairness or justice. And while "victims" groups (like the anti-Catholic hate group SNAP) and the media will go bonkers, the time has come for the Church to end its practice of publishing the names of priests whose cases were never fully adjudicated.

If the Church is to stand for fairness and justice, diocesan "lists of credibly accused priests" need to be ended.

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On this same topic, we highly recommend the following article:
"Who's Really Calling the Shots at U.S. Diocesan Chanceries?" by Michael J. Mazza (First Things, February 24, 2025)