The Committee of Unsecured Creditors, representing all survivors of sexual abuse who submitted claims in the Diocese of Rochester bankruptcy case, reached a settlement with the last holdout insurer, Continental Insurance Company (CNA), for $120 Million.

Victor Vieth, director of the Center for Faith and Child Protection at Zero Abuse Project, said that children who experience abuse, particularly within the church, often deal with lingering crises of faith. “The vast majority of maltreated children are spiritually wounded in some way. Survivors, like many people, turn to their spirituality to make sense out of the suffering. And yet, that’s often the part of the psyche most damaged as a result of the abuse.”

Zero Abuse Project applauds the recent decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court to allow a grand jury to investigate allegations of clergy sexual abuse. The Camden diocese had previously argued that New Jersey could not investigate the church because it is a private entity, but has since backed down and stated it would no longer object to an investigation.

A group of Roman Catholic priests in the state of Washington announced it is suing the state over a new law requiring religious clergy to report all instances of child abuse—even those mentioned during the act of confession. “There is nothing in the Bible that says confession needs to be confidential,” notes Victor Vieth, Director of Center for Faith & Child Protection.

With the New Jersey Supreme Court poised to decide whether a state grand jury can issue a presentment about sexual abuse by members of the clergy, a group of survivors alleges that the Diocese of Camden’s efforts to stop the presentment breaches protocols in its Chapter 11 reorganization aimed at protecting children.

The founder of the Texas megachurch Gateway Church who resigned as senior pastor last year after he admitted “inappropriate sexual behavior” in the 1980s has been indicted on five criminal counts involving a child, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said. Gateway Church said in a statement that it was “grateful for the work of the justice system in holding abusers accountable for their actions.”

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals will hear a largely unknown case that has potential nationwide influence on the legal doctrine of “ecclesial abstention.” In an amicus brief signed by Zero Abuse Project, the plaintiffs argue, “Courts recognize in more meaningful ways that the First Amendment is not a shield behind which religious adherents can escape liability for social wrongs they committed.”

Jeff Taylor, a former youth minister accused of sexually abusing children, spent at least a decade working as a charitable fundraiser in Cincinnati. An independent investigation commissioned by one of his former churches reported that three men have accused Taylor, now 64, of sexually abusing them when they were boys under his supervision in the 1990s.

More than a dozen Northern Texas pastors and church leaders have been removed or stepped down due to sexual and physical abuse accusations. Abuse is about power, according to Victor Veith, director of the Center for Faith and Child Protection at the Zero Abuse Project.