For more than 60 years, the name Francis X. Gallagher has been linked prominently in Baltimore with the Catholic Church. The late Gallagher Sr. in 1961 founded an influential law firm that represented the Baltimore Archdiocese and does so to this day; his name adorns Catholic institutions in the city, his face smiles from black-and-white … Read more
At least a third of the 12 Roman Catholic dioceses in California have either filed for bankruptcy or are contemplating doing so to deal with an influx of lawsuits filed by survivors of childhood sexual abuse after a state law opened a three-year window in which cases were exempted from age limits. More than 3,000 … Read more
An 84-year-old defrocked priest was sentenced to five years of probation for lying to the FBI about whether he knew a former altar boy and his family. Robert Brennan, of Perryville, Maryland, was ordered to spend the first two years on house arrest. Under a plea agreement, he admitted he lied to the FBI when … Read more
The Washington Post reports that Pope Francis called anti-vaccine sentiment ‘baseless’ in his annual state-of-the-world speech: In a sweeping speech on the pandemic and other global issues, Pope Francis on Monday called for widespread vaccination in all countries and suggested the global coronavirus response was being complicated by “baseless information or poorly documented facts.” “Vaccines … Read more
Prominent politicians lost no time in reacting hyperbolically to the Supreme Court’s decision refusing to enjoin Texas’s new law banning abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat. President Biden announced a “whole-of-government effort” to find ways to overcome the Texas measure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) denounced the Supreme Court’s refusal as a “cowardly, … Read more
In the years before his removal from ministry, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick secretly gave nearly $1 million to a controversial group of Catholic missionaries and supported leniency for its founder after the Vatican punished him for sexual wrongdoing, internal church documents show. From 2004 to 2017, McCarrick sent the Institute of the Incarnate Word dozens of … Read more
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s key annual fundraising appeal took in nearly a third less money in 2019, after sexual misconduct and mismanagement scandals involving some of the region’s most prominent Catholic leaders. The archdiocese, which includes the District and its Maryland suburbs, received $10,350,027 for the 2019 Annual Appeal, compared with the 2018 total … Read more
The administrator of the elite Catholic school in Cancun, Mexico, used to take the girls out of class and send them to the chapel, where the priest from the Legion of Christ religious order would sexually abuse them. “As some were reading the Bible, he would rape the others in front of them, little girls … Read more
A Pennsylvania judge has ruled that parents of children in the Roman Catholic Church and survivors of sexual abuse by clergy members can move forward with a lawsuit against the Diocese of Pittsburgh alleging that it has not fulfilled its obligations under state law to report child sexual abusers. The parents and survivors claim that … Read more
For months, civil authorities and Catholic parishioners have sought access to a secret church report about Michael J. Bransfield, the West Virginia bishop ousted for alleged sexual and financial misconduct. Law enforcement authorities in two jurisdictions contend that it could aid investigations they have launched, and parishioners have said it could help them understand how … Read more