Sexual abuse

Poland's day of prayer for victims of clerical sexual abuse, scheduled each year for the first Friday in Lent, was overshadowed March 7 by a controversial opinion from the legal council of the Polish bishops' conference regarding an independent commission for the investigation of abuse cases that has been under development for the past two years.

The Archdiocese of St. John’s is seeking to overturn a Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador decision that released Guardian Insurance from helping cover its settlement with clergy abuse survivors.

The Archdiocese of St. John’s has lost its legal effort to compel its insurance company to help cover some of its mammoth $105-million settlement with nearly 300 clergy sexual abuse survivors.

Highlighting progress made in safeguarding and recommendations for rectifying ongoing gaps, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors dedicated its first annual report to all victims and survivors of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church.

Nearly 300 victims — or their surviving loved ones — who suffered abuse at Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s, N.L., during the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, or by Archdiocese of St. John’s clergy, will receive the initial disbursement of their long-awaited monetary restitution before the end of this month.

Former priest and convicted sex offender Brian Boucher has been on a hospital ward with minors present for at least a month, The Catholic Register has learned.

Which path leads to justice, truth and healing?

A decades-old sexual assault allegation has entwined the priest who stands accused and a bishop who is now under a Vatican probe for allegedly not taking the complaint seriously.

A lawsuit launched in March has accused Fr. Thomas Rosica, the national director of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, of sexually assaulting a young priest in the lead up to event.

Premium brown paper was placed over significant portions of an extensive mosaic program in the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington July 23, obscuring images of holy figures created by a renowned priest-artist under investigation for allegations of sexual abuse.