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ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 9, 2024 / 15:37 pm (CNA).

Rosario Murillo, wife of dictator Daniel Ortega and vice president of Nicaragua, announced that seven priests left the Central American country and have arrived "safely" at the Vatican.

Without further explanation, Murillo announced that on Aug. 7 "seven Nicaraguan priests left Nicaragua for Rome and arrived safely and were received by the Holy See." 

The audio communiqué was aired by Channel 4 Nicaragua and other pro-government media. Murillo mentioned the priests' departure twice in her nearly 13-minute news briefing, without specifying their names.

Since July 26, a total of nine priests have been detained in the dioceses of Matagalpa, Estelí, and Juigalpa, to be later held in the Interdiocesan Seminary of Our Lady of Fatima in Managua.

According to researcher Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?", the priests detained by the dictatorship are: Monsignor Ulises Vega Matamoros, Monsignor Edgar Sacasa Sierra, Father Víctor Godoy, Father Jairo Pravia Flores, Father Marlon Velásquez, Father Jarvin Torrez, and Father Raúl Villegas, all of them from the clergy of the Diocese of Matagalpa; Fray Silvio Romero from the Diocese of Juigalpa; and Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón from the Diocese of Estelí.

According to the Nicaraguan newspaper Mosaico, on Aug. 7 seven of the nine priests were taken from the seminary and sent to Rome.

The news outlet stated that the whereabouts of Villegas are unknown, while it is believed that Valle Salmerón — administrator "ad omnia" of the Diocese of Estelí in the absence of the exiled apostolic administrator of the diocese, Bishop Rolando Álvarez — was left at the seminary.

Vatican News reported in a news brief the names of the priests who arrived in Rome: Víctor Godoy, Jairo Pravia, Silvio Romero, Edgar Sacasa, Harvin Torres, Ulises Vega, and Marlon Velázquez.

Vatican News also noted that this is the fifth group of priests exiled from Nicaragua: In October 2022 and February 2023 two groups were exiled to the United States, while in October 2023 and January 2024 two other groups left for Rome.

Matagalpa is the diocese of Álvarez, a human rights defender and critic of the dictatorship who was held under house arrest for months and eventually sentenced to 26 years in prison in February 2023 in a controversial judicial process.

He was finally deported in January of this year to Rome, where he now lives in exile.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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CNA Staff, Aug 9, 2024 / 16:07 pm (CNA).

A former Catholic seminarian in Ohio pleaded guilty this week to charges of possessing child sexual abuse material and faces years in prison.

Broderick Witt entered the guilty plea at Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, where he was facing multiple counts of "pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor." 

Prosecutors had originally charged Witt with 15 counts; he ultimately pleaded guilty to eight of those charges, with the prosecution dropping the remaining seven. 

Court documents indicated the material involved girls as young as 6 years old. 

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati had announced in February of this year that Witt, at the time a student at Mount St. Mary's Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati, had been arrested by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department after child pornography had been found in his living quarters. 

"Mr. Witt is no longer a student of this institution, nor a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati," seminary rector Father Anthony Brausch said at the time, adding that the seminary was cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation. 

Witt's sentencing is set for Sept. 5. He faces up to a dozen years in prison for the charges. 

In a statement to CNA, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati pointed to Brausch's February statement in which he said that both the seminary and the archdiocese "have strict policies against, and take significant precautions to prevent, anyone from possessing or accessing material of this type, regardless of whether they are a student, faculty, or staff."

"Discovery of such material will result in immediate termination or dismissal and notification of law enforcement," Brausch said.

Local Cincinnati news station WCPO reported in March that prior to his arrest Witt had "interned" at several local parishes, including doing work with children.

Investigators were initially led to Witt after a tip from the group Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Cincinnati Inquirer reported.

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CNA Staff, Aug 9, 2024 / 16:56 pm (CNA).

A Catholic healing ministry in the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, has suspended its monthly healing services after the diocese announced this week that "canonical concerns" have been raised "regarding the exercise of ministry" within the organization.

Prairie Fire Ministries, a group that says it received approval from its bishop in 2021, ministers to "people from across the country at the monthly healing service, offering them a transformative encounter with the living God." 

"Due to the nature of these concerns, the diocese and Prairie Fire Ministries have mutually agreed to pause all Prairie Fire ministries and the ministry of affiliate organizations until these concerns have been adequately addressed," a brief Aug. 7 statement from the diocese reads. 

"Both the Diocese of Des Moines and Prairie Fire Ministries leadership intend to address these concerns promptly and with due diligence."

The diocese has not explained what the concerns, which relate to the Church's Code of Canon Law, entail.  

On its website, Prairie Fire Ministries describes its monthly healing services at Des Moines' St. Ambrose Cathedral as an "opportunity to worship the Lord through song, listen to the preaching of the Gospel, pray for the outpouring of healing grace into our community, and receive individual prayer from our prayer teams." 

The Blessed Sacrament is exposed throughout the evening and priests are readily available for reconciliation, the group notes. The service is not a Mass "but rather an opportunity to sing, pray, and experience the movements of the Holy Spirit in his Eucharistic presence."

The group was founded by Tim Jameson, who lives in Des Moines and "speaks nationally on the power of the Holy Spirit and many different topics," the website says. 

On its Facebook page, Prairie Fire Ministries announced that its upcoming healing service scheduled for Aug. 10 has been canceled, and future healing service dates on its website read "TBD."

In a brief emailed statement in response to an inquiry from CNA, the ministry said it is "unable to respond to the canonical issues at this time."

"However, we are following the leadership of the [Diocese of Des Moines] in this matter. Our mission has always been to bring the healing love of Jesus Christ to a hurting world," the email to CNA said.

Healing services are not uncommon in the Catholic Church, which has long recognized that Christ's ability and willingness to heal people's physical ailments, recorded in the Gospels, continues to this day. 

"Large numbers of the sick approached Jesus during his public ministry, either directly or through friends and relatives, seeking the restoration of health. The Lord welcomes their requests and the Gospels contain not even a hint of reproach for these prayers," reads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's 2000 Instruction on Prayers for Healing.

The Church further acknowledges that praying and trusting God to bring healing does not exclude the use of medical treatments.

"Obviously, recourse to prayer does not exclude but rather encourages the use of effective natural means for preserving and restoring health, as well as leading the Church's sons and daughters to care for the sick, to assist them in body and spirit, and to seek to cure disease," the CDF wrote.

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CNA Staff, Aug 9, 2024 / 17:26 pm (CNA).

David Solomon, a longtime professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and founder of what is now the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, recently entered the Catholic Church,  according to a former student writing for Word on Fire.

Solomon, who arrived at the university in 1968, came into the Catholic Church earlier this year in what Word on Fire's Christopher Kaczor called "a culmination of a life of study [and] a consolation to his many friends," as well as "an intensification of the union with his wonderful wife, Lou," who became Catholic at the same time.

In a lecture several years ago, Solomon said that he started at the university "not only not a Catholic" but also "as innocent of any real understanding of Catholicism as one could be."

"My view of all things Catholic, such as it was, grew out of a combination of ignorance and prejudice in about equal measure," he said.

The philosophy professor retired in 2016 and holds the title of professor emeritus at the school. At the time of Solomon's retirement, Notre Dame law professor Rick Garnett wrote that it was "impossible to overstate the importance of [his] contributions not only to the formation and education of thousands of Notre Dame students but also to the university's Catholic character and mission."

Solomon was the founding director of what is now the university's de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, which on its website states it is "committed to sharing the richness of the Catholic moral and intellectual tradition through teaching, research, and public engagement at the highest level and across a range of disciplines."

Notre Dame history professor Father Bill Miscamble said upon Solomon's retirement that over the course of his tenure at Notre Dame, "few [professors] have been as effective on both the undergraduate and the graduate levels as David Solomon."

"As an undergraduate teacher at Notre Dame, David Solomon aimed to equip his students to confront the range of divisive moral issues that confront them," Miscamble wrote. 

"He aided students to reflect seriously on the very nature and purpose of morality and prepared them to discern well how they should act in light of the profound challenges of our time."

Kaczor, who is a visiting fellow at the de Nicola Center as well as a philosophy professor at Loyola Marymount University, studied under Solomon as a graduate student. He wrote in Word on Fire last month that Solomon's "great kindness to me and others was the best lesson he could give us about the meaning of ethics."

"I think of his example often as I try to mentor students and younger faculty," Kaczor said.

"And now," he added, "Solomon has given us all yet another lesson by his powerful example: to take the next step that God gives us."

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ACI MENA, Aug 9, 2024 / 12:25 pm (CNA).

In a stark departure from the destructive war of 2006, which had political and partly Christian motivations and revealed deep divisions among Christians, Lebanon's Christian community today stands united as the nation teeters on the brink of war. 

With tensions erupting on the southern border, Christian leaders and citizens are presenting a unified front. Despite their varied political allegiances, Christians are collectively refusing to support a war that could further devastate an already struggling country. They recognize the nation's exhausted state and fear it may not recover from another prolonged conflict.

The potential war between Hezbollah and Israel is viewed as a direct continuation of its Gaza forerunner. Christian leaders grasp the gravity of the situation, while everyday Lebanese citizens — struggling to put food on the table, ensure access to medicine, and secure a few hours of electricity — cannot endure more hardships.

Christians withhold their 'blessing'

As the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel intensifies, with recent clashes reaching the southern suburbs of Beirut, the commitment to keep Lebanon out of war becomes increasingly evident. The expanding violence, which could potentially involve Iran, disrupts traditional confrontation patterns and heightens the risk of a broader conflict.

Christian opinion staunchly opposes this escalation, advocating for Lebanese neutrality. 

In response, Christians have called for the full implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. Adopted unanimously in 2006, this resolution aims to end hostilities and address the Lebanese-Israeli conflict with the assistance of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

Bkerke's unwavering position

Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rai maintains his stance from Bkerke, the episcopal see of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch of the Maronite Church in Lebanon, emphasizing the importance of keeping Lebanon out of war. The patriarch has consistently cautioned against being drawn into a "blind war" through his sermons and public statements.

Recently, he condemned those he described as "thirsty for blood," stressing that going to war is a serious responsibility. During a Mass honoring St. Charbel on July 20, he reminded thousands of worshippers that Lebanon is a land of holiness, not a place for wars, destruction, and displacement.

Maronite bishops have echoed this position on several occasions. 

At their monthly meeting on Wednesday, they expressed concern about "the repercussions of the conflict in Gaza and southern Lebanon, and the risk of a broader escalation driven by foreign powers with interests unrelated to our homeland." They reiterated that "the only solution for restoring calm and stability is the implementation of U.N. resolutions, particularly Resolution 1701."

A unified position for Christian parties?

Beyond the Church, major Christian political parties seem to share a unified stance, albeit broadly defined. While each party has expressed its position in its way — some with stronger rhetoric and others more cautiously — officials from the Lebanese Forces Party (which opposes Hezbollah and holds the largest Christian bloc in Parliament), the Free Patriotic Movement (a political ally of Hezbollah), and the Lebanese Kataeb Party (which also opposes Hezbollah) have all made it clear: They do not want Lebanon dragged into war.

This stance is set against a backdrop of anxiety and precaution as both Lebanese citizens and the international community await Hezbollah and Iran's potential military response to Israel in the coming days or even hours. The tension is palpable, with tourists and expatriates departing Beirut International Airport following travel advisories from several countries urging their citizens to leave Lebanon and some airlines suspending flights. Additionally, there is a notable wave of displacement from Lebanese border villages and the southern suburbs of Beirut to safer areas within the country.

With Christians firmly opposed to involving Lebanon in a conflict it can ill afford, the question remains: Will the situation be contained to limited exchanges of fire, or will diplomatic efforts fail, plunging the region into a more severe and widespread war?

This article was first published by ACI Mena, CNA's Arabic-language news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

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CNA Staff, Aug 9, 2024 / 13:33 pm (CNA).

A consortium of investors is warning major retailers including Walmart and Costco against selling the abortion pill, arguing that it will drive away customers and bring "legal and political risk" to the businesses. 

The letters, distributed earlier this month and signed by more than three dozen investment advisers, fiduciaries, and other financial leaders, urged the retailers to refrain from stocking the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone in their stores. The signatories hold tens of millions of dollars in investments in the named corporations. 

The letters note that the New York City comptroller recently urged the retailers to begin offering the abortion pill, arguing that failing to do so would raise "investor concerns" and would call into question the retailers' "commitment to maximizing sales and long-term shareholder value." New York City's pension system invests heavily in the retailers. 

In their letter, the signatories disputed those claims, calling it "not true." 

The investors argued that stocking the deadly pill would be "legally and politically fraught," that it would raise "significant reputational issues," and that it would "[reduce] the company's customer base, both literally and because it would drive away many existing customers."

The investors noted that the planned distribution of the drug is currently in flux. They pointed to the recent Supreme Court decision in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine; that ruling allowed the abortion pill to remain on the market but only "on procedural grounds," leaving the ultimate legality of the pill still uncertain.

The retailers would "likely" be prohibited from distributing the drug through mail, the letters noted, given current federal law. A total of 14 states, meanwhile, outlaw the drug completely, while another four restrict its distribution, and Louisiana classifies the drug as a controlled substance. 

"Continuing to promote this widespread form of abortion is only likely to generate even more political backlash that reduces market opportunity and increases legal risk," the investors wrote. 

The retailers should "carefully consider the cost of alienating [their] diverse customers and potential customers just to boost one product" in their pharmacies, the letters further argued, while allowing the drug to end the lives of unborn children could also significantly impact future sales. 

"The Brookings Institution recently estimated that the average American family will spend $310,000 to raise a child born in 2015," the signatories said. "This includes over $50,000 in food and $15,000 on clothes, not to mention furniture, other household and health care items, toys and games, or diapers and formula, all things your stores sell." 

Dispensing the abortion drug "will reduce demand for all of these and only make worse the crisis of record-low birth rates," the letters said. 

Uncertainties around the health risks of the pill could further endanger the businesses, the investors said.

"Mifepristone terminates life and does so in ways that the FDA acknowledges risks serious harm to the mother," they said. "Dispensing it is filled with legal and political risk and will inject [retailers] into the middle of an intense political battle at great expense to [their] reputation."

The extensive list of signatories was led by Robert Netzly, the CEO of Inspire Investing, which on its website says it works to "[empower] Christian investors through biblically responsible investing excellence and innovation."

Earlier this year, the company was ranked as one of the top registered investment advisers by USA Today. 

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CNA Staff, Aug 9, 2024 / 14:26 pm (CNA).

Catholic schools will be excluded from Maine's tuition grant program, a Maine district court affirmed on Thursday.  

The court ruled that while the plaintiffs "are raising important legal questions," they are "not entitled to a preliminary injunction," according to the 75-page order.

Maine's tuition program is designed to fund tuition for students in rural areas to attend nearby private or public schools in lieu of the state maintaining its own schools in those areas. Maine also funds tuition for out-of-state and out-of-country schools including schools in Quebec and Massachusetts. 

The program was designed to enable parents to have their children educated at private schools in rural school districts lacking public schools, but in 1982, Maine began disqualifying religious schools for being sectarian.

Though the landmark 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision Carson v. Makin affirmed that the "sectarian exclusion" violates the free exercise clause because it excludes schools on the basis of their religious exercise, Maine instituted another law that more indirectly prevents religious schools from being approved for the tuition program.

One of those religious schools is St. Dominic Academy, a K–12 Catholic school with campuses in Lewiston and Auburn, where Keith and Valori Radonis, organic rural farmers, wanted to send their children. 

After Maine amended the tuition assistance program with a "human rights" law that kept out schools like St. Dominic, the Radonis family, St. Dominic, and the Diocese of Portland turned to religious liberty law firm Becket to combat the law. 

"Maine officials are keeping religious families and schools out in the cold," Adèle Auxier Keim, senior counsel at Becket, said in a statement shared with CNA. "The district court's decision allows the state to continue paying for all-girls boarding schools in Massachusetts while denying benefits to rural families that want to attend St. Dominic, which has been serving Mainers for more than 80 years."

"Maine's new laws block schools that receive tuition funds from allowing any religious expression unless they allow every kind — meaning that a Catholic school like St. Dominic can't have Mass unless it also allows a Baptist revival meeting," the Becket press release from June 2023 explained. 

"It also gives the state's Human Rights Commission — not parents and schools — the final word on how the school teaches students to live out Catholic beliefs regarding marriage, gender, and family life," it continued. "As a result, faith-based schools are still being barred from serving rural families through the program."

The new restrictions are largely viewed on both sides as a way around the Supreme Court decision.

On the day the Supreme Court decided to include religious schools in tuition programs, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey stated in a press release: "I am terribly disappointed and disheartened by today's decision … I intend to explore … statutory amendments to address the court's decision and ensure that public money is not used to promote discrimination, intolerance, and bigotry."

As evidence of religious targeting, Becket pointed to public social media posts by Maine officials saying that Maine "anticipated the ludicrous decision from the far-right SCOTUS" by amending the tuition program, the Aug. 8 court order noted.  

"We will continue to push back against Maine's transparent efforts to evade Carson v. Makin and make an end run around the Supreme Court," Keim said.

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CNA Staff, Aug 9, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Aug. 9 is the feast day of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as Edith Stein. A convert from Judaism at the age of 30, she later entered the Carmelite order and died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1942.

St. Teresa Benedicta was a scholar and an intellectual who earned a doctorate before her conversion, which, after years of interest in Christianity, came to fruition after she read the autobiography of St. Teresa of Ávila. She taught at a university before entering the Carmelites and continued to study and teach, completing before her death a study of St. John of the Cross titled "The Science of the Cross." 

Pope John Paul II canonized her in 1998 and proclaimed her a co-patroness of Europe the following year.

St. Teresa Benedicta is not yet a doctor of the Church, but there's an effort underway right now to name her as one. Her order, the Discalced Carmelites, put in an official request to the Vatican in April and has proposed for her the title "doctor veritatis" ("doctor of truth") because of her relentless intellectual pursuit of truth in Jesus Christ. (The co-founder of the Discalced Carmelites, St. John of the Cross, is also a doctor of the Church, as is the saint who had such a profound influence on Stein, St. Teresa of Ávila.)

If St. Teresa Benedicta is named a doctor of the Church, she would join 37 other saints with that title, four of whom are women: St. Teresa of Ávila, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and St. Hildegard of Bingen. She would also be the second doctor of the Church to be a martyr, after St. Irenaeus of Lyon. 

(Also, if St. Teresa Benedicta were named a doctor of the Church, it would mean that three of the five female doctors would have essentially the same first name.)

What is a doctor of the Church?

The title "doctor of the Church" recognizes those canonized men and women who possessed profound knowledge, were superb teachers, and contributed significantly to the Church's theology.

Traditionally, the title of doctor of the Church has been granted on the basis of three requirements: the manifest holiness of a candidate affirmed by his or her canonization as a saint; the person's eminence in doctrine demonstrated by the leaving behind of a body of teachings that made significant and lasting contributions to the life of the Church; and a formal declaration by the Church, usually by a pope.

The list of more than three dozen doctors of the Church includes some of the most well-known and revered Catholic saints, including St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Francis de Sales, and St. Thomas Aquinas.

Not quite half of the saints revered as doctors in the Catholic Church are also honored in the Orthodox church since they lived before the Great Schism in 1054.

The most recent doctor of the Church to be named was St. Irenaeus of Lyon, with the title "doctor unitatis" ("doctor of unity"), in 2022. Pope Francis had previously in 2015 named as a doctor of the Church St. Gregory of Narek, a 10th-century priest, monk, mystic, and poet beloved among Armenian Christians.

Among Catholics who lived in modern times, there have been calls for St. John Paul II, St. John Henry Newman, and Pope Benedict XVI to be named doctors of the Church — though the late Pope Benedict's sainthood cause has not yet been opened.

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ACI Digital, Aug 9, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The first Family Pride Parade will take place on Saturday, Aug. 10, the day before Father's Day in Brazil, on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro starting at 9 a.m. local time. The parade is an initiative of the National Network in Defense of Life and Family and aims to celebrate the sacredness of the family.

"Defending life from conception to natural death is a fundamental value that all families must protect," Zezé Luz, the founder and executive president of the National Network in Defense of Life and Family, wrote on Facebook, inviting families to take part in the parade dressed in white T-shirts and carrying colorful balloons.

The archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Cardinal Orani João Tempesta, emphasized in a video that "it is very important for those who seek to be a family, and especially a Christian family, to come together and show the world how we want to live and be." For him, the Family Pride Parade "is our freedom of expression."

According to Zezé Luz, the first Family Pride Parade will be "a peaceful, nonpartisan and supra-religious demonstration" as well as "a moment of unity, prayer, and action" in which people who believe in the family will be able to show their "commitment to the dignity and respect for the life of all children, including the most defenseless."

The parade will also take place on Aug. 17 in other cities in Brazil, such as Brasilia and Florianópolis.

Zezé Luz, is a mother, family counselor, pro-life activist and Catholic singer. In 1986, at age 19, she had an abortion after being raped in her hometown of Campina Grande. After that, she lived with the physical and psychological consequences of her act for about 15 years. In her mission to defend life, from 2004 to the present, she has saved more than 2,000 babies from abortion.

The parade will also take place on Aug. 17 in other cities in Brazil, such as Brasilia and Florianópolis.

This story was first published by ACI Digital, CNA's Portuguese-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by ACI Prensa and CNA.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 8, 2024 / 17:36 pm (CNA).

A Catholic parish and school in the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, has fired an employee who was in charge of background checks and sexual abuse awareness training after he was arrested for possessing materials depicting child pornography and abuse.

The employee, John Denzel, 60, worked as the safe environment coordinator for St. Brigid of Kildare, a parish and pre-K through eighth grade school in Dublin, Ohio.

He was arrested by the Union County Sheriff's Office on Aug. 5, according to a report by the sheriff's office.

An official with the Union County Court of Ohio told CNA that Denzel was incarcerated for a short time at the Tri-County Regional Jail and has since been released on his own recognizance.

Denzel, who has been employed by St. Brigid of Kildare since 2017 and has held the position of safe environment coordinator since 2022, was indicted on 15 charges related to possessing child pornography on July 26.

He is facing four charges of pandering sexually oriented matters involving a minor and 11 charges of illegal use of a minor or impaired person in nudity-oriented material or performance.

According to court documents the crimes occurred between July 6, 2022, and Jan. 3, 2023, which falls within the time range Denzel worked for the Diocese of Columbus as the safe environment coordinator.

As safe environment coordinator, Denzel was charged with helping to ensure the parish and school's compliance with diocesan safety policies. He also conducted fingerprint background checks and coordinated the parish and school's "Protecting God's Children" sexual abuse awareness course for volunteers, according to an archived parish webpage. 

Jason Mays, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Columbus, told CNA that the diocese was made aware of the "shocking and reprehensible criminal allegations" against Denzel on Aug. 6, the day after his arrest.

"Upon learning of the indictment against him, his employment was immediately terminated," Mays said, adding that "St. Brigid of Kildare and the Diocese of Columbus administrations are working in full cooperation with local law enforcement as they proceed with a thorough investigation."   

Additionally, Mays said that Columbus Bishop Earl Fernandes "has mandated an immediate evaluation of the hiring and onboarding process of all parish-level safe environment coordinators."

"The Diocese of Columbus stands firm on a zero-tolerance policy that holds all staff and volunteers to a high standard of conduct, no exceptions," Mays added. "The Diocese of Columbus takes child protection seriously and remains vigilant in combating all forms of child abuse." 

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