Latest Church Headlines
All the headlines from our Church Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Ex-Church Administrator in Pennsylvania Pleads Guilty in $1.2M Theft
Oct 18 2019 // A former western Pennsylvania church administrator has pleaded guilty to stealing $1.2 million that prosecutors say he and his wife used to pay for vacations, sports tickets and other personal expenses. Fifty-year-old...
Federal Officials Investigate 6th Church Fire in Tennessee
Oct 11 2019 // Federal authorities are investigating a fire that was intentionally set at a vacant church in Memphis, Tennessee. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman Michael Knight says the blaze at First Church...
18-Karat Gold Toilet Stolen From Winston Churchill’s Birthplace
Sep 17 2019 // Burglars overnight broke into England’s Blenheim Palace [on Saturday, Sept. 14], the birthplace of Winston Churchill, and stole an 18-karat gold toilet on display as part of an art exhibition. The thieves took the...
How Southeast Volunteers Prep for Disasters
Sep 3 2019 // Industrial-sized circular fans pushed humid air down the warehouse alleys, lightening the mid-90s afternoon temperatures for the workers. The group removed lids from plastic buckets, organized cleaning supplies and...
Government Fails to Block Liability Lawsuit Over Failed Background Check on Shooter
Sep 3 2019 // A lawsuit over a faulty background check that allowed a South Carolina man to buy the gun he used to kill nine people in a racist attack at a Charleston church was reinstated Friday by a federal appeals court. A...
Iowa’s GuideOne Teams Up with Strategos International on Armed Intruder Training
Aug 27 2019 // West Des Moines, Iowa-based GuideOne Insurance has formed an alliance with Strategos International, a Kansas City-based organization that will bring training and consulting to its customers in all niches – churches,...
Clergy Members Named in Alaska Sexual Misconduct Review
Aug 26 2019 // An independent review has found credible accusations of past sexual misconduct against seven clergy members of an Alaska Catholic diocese, including a former priest who died in a July plane crash and another priest who was...
Over 400 Sex Abuse Suits Filed in New York as Litigation Window Opens
Aug 16 2019 // The Roman Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, schools and hospitals, the late financier Jeffrey Epstein are some of the targets named in a flurry of sex abuse lawsuits filed Wednesday in New York as the state began accepting...
State Clergy Abuse Hotline in Pennsylvania Fielded 1,900 Calls in First Year
Aug 13 2019 // Investigators are working their way through accusations from 1,862 calls made to a clergy abuse hotline in the 12 months since a landmark grand jury report exposed decades of child abuse within Pennsylvania’s Roman...
Rhode Island AG Gains Access to Nearly 70 Years of Records from Diocese of Providence
Jul 29 2019 // As part of an ongoing review of allegations of clergy child sexual abuse within the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Bishop...
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York Sues Insurers Over Future Abuse Claims
Jul 8 2019 // The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has sued more than two dozen insurance companies, seeking to compel them to cover claims filed by people who say they were abused by clerics. Church officials anticipate that...
Little Rock Diocese Settles Sexual Abuse Claims for $790K
Jul 3 2019 // Lawyers for five men who claim an Arkansas priest sexually abused them more than four decades ago said that the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock has settled after mediation in what the attorneys believe is a first of its...
Vatican Defends Secrecy of Catholic Confessions Amid Priest Sex Scandals
Jul 3 2019 // Amid pedophile clergy scandals, the Vatican has declared “unacceptable” any efforts by politicians or lawmakers to force priests violate their sacred obligation to keep secret what faithful tell them in...
Massachusetts’ Fred C. Church Insurance Hires Lonsdale
Jun 28 2019 // Fred C. Church Insurance has hired Ian Lonsdale as an Employee Benefits client executive. The main focus of the Employee Benefits division at Fred C. Church is to serve and support its commercial clients. Utilizing five...
Insurance to Pay Most of Minnesota Diocese’s $34M Settlement with Abuse Victims
Jun 27 2019 // The Diocese of New Ulm in Minnesota has reached a $34 million settlement in its bankruptcy case with 93 people who say they were sexually abused by priests and others, the diocese and an attorney representing survivors...
Southern Baptists Under Pressure to Deal with Sex Abuse Claims
Jun 10 2019 // The Southern Baptist Convention gathers for its annual national meeting Tuesday with one sobering topic — sex abuse by clergy and staff — overshadowing all others. Inside the meeting hall in Birmingham, Alabama,...
Churchgoers Fear Armed Intruders
Jun 4 2019 // More than 1 in 10 Americans (12%) say they do not feel safe in their places of worship. Church Mutual Insurance Co., a leading insurer of religious organizations, said it learned in a new survey that fear of armed...
West Virginia AG Files Amended Suit Against State Catholic Diocese Over Abuse
May 29 2019 // West Virginia’s Roman Catholic diocese failed to publicly disclose decade-old allegations of sexual abuse of a student involving a Catholic school teacher, the state’s attorney general said May 21. Attorney...
Issuer Credit Rating Outlook Revised to Stable for Church Mutual Insurance Group
May 28 2019 // AM Best has revised the outlook to stable from positive for the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of “a” of...
California Dioceses Creating Abuse Compensation Program
May 16 2019 // Six Roman Catholic dioceses in California are creating a program to compensate people who were sexually abused by priests as children, in return for them promising not to sue. The program announced Tuesday includes the...
