VATICAN CITY -- After the Vatican released its extensive report on Theodore E. McCarrick, Pope Francis renewed the Catholic Church's pledge to uproot the scourge of sexual abuse.

Published in Reflections

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Although dogged for years by rumors of sexual impropriety, Theodore E. McCarrick was able to rise up the Catholic hierarchical structure based on personal contacts, protestations of his innocence and a lack of church officials reporting and investigating accusations, according to the Vatican report on the matter.

Published in Vatican

WARSAW, Poland -- A retired Polish cardinal has been banned from all public appearances, and ordered to compensate his alleged victims, after being investigated for sexual abuse.

Published in International

OTTAWA -- The promise to release a detailed public list of all Canadian Jesuits who have been “credibly accused” of sex abuse has been delayed until at least the spring.

Published in Canada

VATICAN CITY -- At a criminal trial involving alleged sexual abuse at a minor seminary located in the Vatican, the Vatican City State criminal court accepted a motion to allow the alleged victim to seek damages from the seminary and the religious institution that runs it.

Published in Vatican

ROME -- The president of Focolare has accepted the resignations of the lay movement's top leaders in France and announced the group will ask an independent committee to investigate how allegations of the sexual abuse of minors have been handled.

Published in International

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop accused of negligence after a documentary claimed he repeatedly transferred a priest accused of sexually abusing children.

Published in International

VATICAN CITY - Dressed in a black polo shirt with a sweater draped around his shoulders, Father Gabriele Martinelli, 28, heard a Vatican criminal court accuse him of repeatedly sexually abusing a younger student at a minor seminary inside the Vatican.

Published in Vatican

VANCOUVER -- The Archdiocese of Vancouver is following through on the first recommendation in last year’s clergy sexual abuse report by establishing an external office to handle clergy sexual abuse complaints.

Published in Canada

TOLEDO, Ohio -- A priest of the Diocese of Toledo is on administrative leave as he faces federal sex trafficking charges.

Published in International
WASHINGTON - A firm that has filed previous legal complaints against former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick and church entities added another complainant July 21 against the defrocked prelate, leveling a new accusation that he allegedly abused its new client as a boy at a beach house in Sea Girt, New Jersey, in the early 1980s.
Published in International

Five members of the Clerics of Saint-Viateur in Quebec have been arrested for alleged sexual abuse of boys over three decades.

Published in Canada

ROME -- The postulator and the commission involved in investigating the life of Pope John Paul II for sainthood cause found no evidence that the pope knowingly neglected or covered up abuse scandals, the postulator said.

Published in Vatican

LYON, France -- A former French priest was sentenced to jail for five years for sexual assaults against Scouts.

Published in International

MONTREAL -- The Canadian bishops’ standing committee for the Responsible Ministry and Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons met for the first time in January, but the fact that the identities of the majority of its members is kept secret irritates victims, who see a lack of transparency.

Published in Canada