Franciscan Friars Archives

Province to withdraw its Franciscans from ministry in Charleston Diocese

Jan 23, 2020

After more than seven decades of ministry by Franciscans in the Diocese of Charleston, the religious order’s Holy Name Province has told a group of its friars they are being withdrawn from South Carolina.

By Christina Lee Knauss

Lawsuit: Church pressured victims into unfair settlements

Nov 22, 2019

Two impoverished Mississippi men who say they were sexually assaulted by Franciscan missionaries filed a federal lawsuit Thursday claiming that Catholic officials pressured them into signing settlements that paid them little money and required them to remain silent about the alleged abuse.

By Michael Rezendes

Mississippi man says he still struggles after clergy abuse

Sep 3, 2019

For Joshua K. Love, recovering from beatings and sexual abuse he says he suffered at a Catholic grade school 20 years ago is a matter of day-to-day survival.

By Maye-E Wong and Michael Rezendes

Survivors demand US investigation of Mississippi abuse deals

Aug 30, 2019

Catholic sex abuse survivors in Mississippi and Wisconsin on Thursday demanded that federal authorities investigate allegations from three black Mississippi men who say they were molested by Franciscan friars during the mid-1990s, when they were as young as 9 years old.

By Michael Rezendes and Emily Wagster Pettus

In Mississippi Delta, Catholic abuse cases settled on cheap

Aug 27, 2019

A famed Catholic religious order settled sex abuse cases in recent months by secretly paying two black Mississippi men $15,000 each and requiring them to keep silent about their claims, The Associated Press has found.

By Michael Rezendes

Franciscans’ Denver meeting first phase of making six provinces into one

Aug 13, 2019

History was made when close to 400 Franciscan friars — from 25 states as well as Canada, Italy Jamaica, Mexico and the Philippines — gathered in unity and fraternity in Denver for the religious order’s “Chapter of Mats.”

By Catholic News Service