SHERBROOKE, Quebec -- A Quebec Superior Court judge authorized a class action against a Catholic religious group once heralded for its ability to foster vocations, opening the way for people who claim to have been physically, spiritually, or psychologically abused within the organization to join the legal case.

Jane Doe never attended Mount Cashel Orphanage, but she knows the second-hand impact all too well. 

COLOGNE, Germany -- The second expert report commissioned to investigate abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne also incriminates church officials who are still alive and accuses them of mistakes in dealing with cases of sexualized violence, according to its author, Björn Gercke.

OTTAWA -- Archbishop Peter Hundt says “sacrifices” will have to be made, but the Archdiocese of St. John’s has to move forward with compassion and understanding after a “dark chapter” of abuse in the Newfoundland archdiocese’s history.

A victim of former priest and notorious sexual abuser Charles Sylvestre can reopen her civil suit against the Diocese of London, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Feb. 11.

VANCOUVER -- The Archdiocese of Vancouver has been named in a proposed class-action lawsuit involving allegations of sexual abuse at two Catholic high schools run by the Christian Brothers.

VATICAN CITY - Two priests connected to a minor seminary located at the Vatican will appear before a Vatican criminal court Oct. 14 on charges related to the alleged sexual abuse of students at the seminary.

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.

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a 17-page document offering a step-by-step guide for how bishops, religious superiors and canon lawyers are supposed to handle accusations of alleged abuse by clerics against minors.

Three former students at Toronto’s St. Michael’s College School were  sentenced to two years probation on Dec. 19 for their part in sexual assaults committed on campus in 2018.

SYDNEY -- The Australian Catholic Church could face tens of millions dollars in compensation claims after the Diocese of Ballarat in Victoria state admitted, for the first time, it knew of the behavior of a pedophile priest yet continued to move him around from parish to parish.

VATICAN CITY -- Vatican City State will have its own reporting system in place before the end of the year for flagging suspected cases of the abuse of minors and vulnerable people and instances of cover-up or negligence in handling such cases, the Vatican said.

BALTIMORE -- The U.S. bishops are set to vote on a 10-point statement, "Affirming Our Episcopal Commitments," in which the bishops hope to regain "the trust of the people of God."

BALTIMORE, Md. (CNA) -- Advisory bodies to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called Tuesday for the bishops to urge the Holy See to make public all documentation related to the misconduct of Theodore McCarrick, in accord with canon and civil law.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A $60 million settlement to be paid by Fairfield University and several Catholic organizations and individuals will go to as many as 170 Haitian children at a Catholic orphanage who were abused by convicted pedophile Douglas Perlitz.