Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich is pushing back on a clergy child sex abuse report released by the Illinois Attorney General. The investigation contends 451 Catholic clergy have sexually abused nearly 2,000 children in Illinois between 1950 and 2019, with Attorney General Kwame Raoul saying the number of abused children is considerably larger than the 103 Read more
Fr Hans Zollner has resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Zollner is one of the most respected experts in the Vatican’s fight against clergy sex abuse. He cited disagreements over the way the body is being operated. “I have noticed issues that need to be urgently addressed and that have made Read more
Pope Francis permanently decreed an updated version of Vos estis lux mundi, his landmark legislation to counter sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The decree promulgated March 25 extends the Church’s norms for handling of abuse to cover lay leaders of international associations of the faithful recognized by the Vatican. Vos estis lux mundi (“You Read more
A deacon of the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York has been sentenced to 16 years in prison after he admitted to prosecutors that he engaged in sexual acts with minors he met on the hook-up app Grindr. Rogelio Vega, 52, was sentenced on March 15, two years after he was arrested in an NYPD sting Read more
A Polish TV report has claimed that Pope John Paul II, when he was Archbishop Karol Wojtyla, knew about sexual abuse within the Catholic Church but failed to take appropriate action. The report aired on TVN24, a major news channel in Poland, and has sparked controversy among Catholics and non-Catholics alike. A former priest named Read more
Prosecutors are challenging the medical report claiming Mr Theodore McCarrick is not competent to stand trial on charges he sexually abused a teen in the 1970s. McCarrick is a laicised former cardinal, McCarrick’s legal team filed the report on 27 February in Massachusetts’ Dedham District Court based on a medical evaluation that found McCarrick, 92, Read more
More than 100 priests suspected of child sexual abuse remain active in church roles in Portugal, according to the head of a commission investigating the issue. The commission, which started its work in January 2022, said in its final report published on Monday that at least 4,815 children were sexually abused by members of the Read more
At least 4,815 children were sexually abused by members of the Portuguese Catholic Church – mostly priests – over the past 70 years, the commission investigating the issue said in a report on Monday, adding the findings are the “tip of the iceberg”. “(We want) to pay a sincere tribute to those who were abuse Read more
The Catholic Church in France is facing demands from its religious orders to take responsibility for the evidence of sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse in L’Arche, a former lay community for people with developmental disabilities. A 437-page report, published after a two-year investigation, exposes the shocking details of how L’Arche’s founder, Jean Vanier (pictured), created Read more
The Catholic church in Australia is defending small compensation payouts for dead priests’ alleged abuse. In June, the New South Wales courts permanently stayed a civil claim brought by a survivor, known as GLJ, who alleged horrific abuse at the hands of Father Clarence Anderson in Lismore in 1968 when she was 14. The court Read more