A state grand jury has charged a now-91-year-old disgraced priest with sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1975, an extraordinary prosecution that could shed new light on what Roman Catholic Church leaders knew about a child sex abuse crisis that persisted for decades and claimed hundreds of victims. The priest, Lawrence Hecker, has been at … Read more
Father Hans Zollner, one of the leading members of the Vatican committee against child sexual abuse, said on Wednesday he had resigned from the group, citing concerns over the way it was operating. Zollner was one of the founding members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which Pope Francis established in 2014 … Read more
Lawyers for former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick filed a motion Monday to dismiss a case charging him with sexually assaulting a boy decades ago, saying the 92-year-old once-powerful American prelate has dementia and is not competent to stand trial. McCarrick pleaded not guilty in September 2021 in the Massachusetts case that alleges the priest … Read more
When a majority of Catholics vote to kill children, Bishops must acknowledge most Catholics are on the highway to Hell. In the midterm elections, evangelical Christians across the nation reconfirmed their allegiance to conservative candidates and causes, while Catholic voters once again showed how closely divided they are — even on abortion. On a successful, … Read more
The Archdiocese of Seattle said Thursday it will pay $375,000 to settle two separate claims of sexual abuse in the 1970s and 1980s. The Roman Catholic archdiocese said in a news release that it settled a case involving allegations of childhood sexual abuse in the early to mid-1970s by David Pearson, a volunteer at St. … Read more
A New Jersey Catholic diocese has agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle claims involving clergy sex abuse with some 300 alleged victims in one of the largest cash settlements involving the Catholic church in the United States. The agreement between the Diocese of Camden, which encompasses six counties in southern New Jersey on the … Read more
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday that Pope Francis had told him he should keep receiving Communion, amid fierce debate in the U.S. Church over Biden’s position on abortion. Biden has come under pressure from conservatives at home and his most ardent critics in the U.S. Church hierarchy have said he should be banned … Read more
Pope Francis on Saturday accepted the resignation of the bishop of the Polish diocese of Kalisz who has been accused of shielding priests known to have sexually abused children. A Vatican statement said Bishop Edward Janiak had handed in his resignation and that the pope had appointed Archbishop Grzegorz Rys of the city of Lodz … Read more
A Roman Catholic priest serving the Newark area was arrested and is facing two charges related to sexually harassing an adult, police said. A woman first reported that Donato Cabardo, 56, who serves at a Jersey City church, groped her in the church rectory to the Archdiocese of Newark. The Hudson County prosecutor’s office said … Read more
Pope Francis has tapped a former Bank of Italy executive to take over the Vatican’s financial intelligence unit following a scandal that resulted in the Vatican being suspended from an international anti-money laundering network. Pope Francis has tapped a Bank of Italy executive to take over the Vatican’s financial intelligence unit following a scandal that … Read more