Tag Archives: Vatican

Just out from Gallup Polling: As the Catholic church responds to more allegations of sexual abuse of young people by priests, an increasing percentage of Catholics are re-examining their commitment to the religion. Thirty-seven percent of U.S. Catholics, up from 22% in 2002, say news of the abuse has led them to question whether they would remain in the church. …

NBC News reports: The most senior Catholic cleric ever to be convicted of child sex abuse was sentenced to six years in prison in Australia on Wednesday morning. Cardinal George Pell, 77, faced as many as 50 years in prison after being convicted in December for the molestation of two choir boys while he was the archbishop of Melbourne in …

France 24 reports: The archbishop of Lyon, the most senior French Catholic cleric caught up in the paedophilia scandals that have rocked the church, was convicted of helping covering up abuse and handed a six-month suspended jail term on Thursday. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was found guilty of failing to report the abuse of a minor between 2014 and 2015. His …

The Guardian reports: George Pell is arguing his child sexual abuse convictions should be overturned or he should receive a retrial, because of a “fundamental irregularity” that prevented him from entering a not-guilty plea in front of his jury. The Victorian court of appeal has released Pell’s grounds for appeal against his December conviction for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys …

CNN reports: One of the most powerful men in the Roman Catholic Church was found guilty of multiple historical child sex offenses at a secret trial in Melbourne in December, the existence of which can only now be revealed. Australian Cardinal George Pell, 77, is almost certain to face prison after a jury found him guilty of one charge of …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Pope Francis closed an unprecedented Vatican summit on clerical sex abuse by promising to protect children and help victims of what he called a plague of clerical sex abuse, but he offered few policy specifics. The pope, in his widely awaited closing speech on Sunday, said the church’s response should avoid “defensiveness that fails to …

The Wall Street Journal reports: French authorities placed the Vatican’s envoy to France under investigation for allegedly sexually assaulting a local Paris official last month, the latest in a string of embarrassing episodes involving Holy See diplomats. Paris prosecutors opened an inquiry targeting Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the Vatican’s 74-year-old papal ambassador to France, after receiving a complaint from the office …

The Washington Post reports: D.C.’s embattled Catholic leader, Donald Wuerl, under fire in recent days for untruthful statements regarding what he knew about the alleged sexual misconduct of his predecessor, Theodore McCarrick, apologized late Tuesday, saying he forgot he knew about the allegations and that it was “never the intention to provide false information.” Wuerl apologized to former priest Robert …

Axios reports: In a lengthy and highly unusual letter to U.S. bishops on Thursday, Pope Francis wrote that the mounting child sex abuse crisis has jeopardized the Catholic Church’s credibility. He lambasted church leaders for focusing “more on pointing fingers than on seeking paths of reconciliation.” “This has led to a growing sense of uncertainty, distrust and vulnerability among the …

The Associated Press reports: The Vatican spokesman, Greg Burke, and his deputy resigned abruptly Monday amid an overhaul of the Vatican’s communications operations and a crisis period in Pope Francis’ papacy. The departures of Burke and his deputy, Paloma Garcia Ovejero, signaled that problems associated with Francis’ reform of the Vatican bureaucracy came to a head at a bad time. …

The Associated Press reports: The Vatican’s sexual abuse case against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has expanded significantly after a man testified that the retired American archbishop sexually abused him for years starting when he was 11, including during confession. The Vatican is under pressure to finalize its case against McCarrick before Francis hosts church leaders at a February sex abuse prevention …

Reuters reports: Pope Francis, in his Christmas message to the world, urged people on Tuesday to see differences as a source of richness instead of danger and called for reconciliation in places torn apart by conflict. Francis delivered the traditional papal “Urbi et Orbi” message to tens of thousands of people in a sunny St. Peter’s Square from the same …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis vowed Friday that the Catholic Church will “never again” cover up clergy sex abuse and demanded that priests who have raped and molested children turn themselves in. Francis dedicated his annual Christmas speech to the Vatican bureaucracy to abuse, evidence that a year of devastating revelations of sexual misconduct and cover-up has shaken his …

The Catholic Crux reports: Fully automated and autonomous lethal weapons systems must be banned now before they become a reality in tomorrow’s wars, a Vatican representative said. The development of robotic weapons or “killer robots” will provide “the capacity of altering irreversibly the nature of warfare, becoming more detached from human agency, putting in question the humanity of our societies,” …

From the National Catholic Reporter: The plenary meeting of the Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops opened with a bombshell. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the conference, announced that the Holy See had insisted the U.S. bishops not vote on any concrete action items regarding the clergy sex abuse crisis, pending the February meeting of the presidents of all episcopal …

The Associated Press reports: Thirty-three priests or religious brothers in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, have been “credibly accused” and/or removed from the ministry over sexual abuse of minors, the bishop of the central Missouri diocese said Thursday. Bishop W. Shawn McKnight released a complete list of the names that followed an internal investigation begun in February. …

ABC News reports: An Ohio priest is facing charges after his diocese said he admitted to having a relationship with a now-pregnant 17-year-old girl. Father Henry Christopher Foxhoven, 45, was the pastor at Holy Cross and St. Mary of the Hill parishes in the Diocese of Steubenville. According to the Athens County prosecutor, the teen was an altar girl at …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis on Saturday defrocked two more Chilean bishops accused of sexually abusing minors, and to show greater transparency about how he’s responding to the church’s global sex abuse crisis, he publicly explained why they were removed. The Vatican’s unusually detailed statement announcing the laicization of retired Archbishop Francisco Jose Cox Huneeus and retired Bishop Marco …

The Washington Post reports: Pope Francis on Friday accepted the resignation of Washington’s archbishop, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who in a matter of months went from a trusted papal ally who had largely managed to avoid controversy over a long career to a prominent symbol of what many Catholics have come to regard as an infuriatingly weak and defensive response by …

Bloomberg reports: The devil is alive and well and working overtime to undermine the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis says. In fact, the pope is so convinced that Satan is to blame for the sexual abuse crisis and deep divisions racking the Church that he has asked Catholics around the world to recite a special prayer every day in October …