In a world first, Germans Catholics are now able to rate priests online using a “shepherd’s barometer”. The barometer, “Hirten barometer” gives parishioners the chance to rate their priests performance on scale of 1 – 6 measuring the priests performance at church services crediblity having the ‘finger on the pulse’ youth work care for the elderly “Pastoral Read more
The first time the Rev. Charles Murphy was cleared of accusations that he improperly touched a minor, a girl 25 years earlier, everyone who ever met him said they had never doubted his innocence. It was 2006 and priests were all over the news for every awful reason, most of them deservedly so. But Father Read more
Former prison chaplain Fr Eugene Klein has been charged with helping a notorious Chicago mobster sneak messages out of jail and trying to recover a valuable Stradivarius violin. The aim was to keep the government from getting it, prosecutors said. Bishop of Wiaona diocese Rev John Quinn has suspended the Rev Eugene Klein from his Read more
A priest with a gambling addiction and who allegedly stole more than US$300,000 of the parish collection money is expected to plead guilty to theft. John Regan, the former priest at St Walter parish, Roselle Ill, is expected to enter a “blind” plea of guilty that may see him receive a 15 year prison sentence. Read more
Release of the John Jay College study on the causes of sexual abuse by Catholic priests signals the end of the U.S. bishops’ five-year, $1.8 million inquiry into the institution they govern and the priests in their charge. But the new study hardly quiets the fundamental questions that have dogged the church and its leaders Read more
The study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York, which concluded there was no single cause or predictor of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, is not likely to put to rest questions about the cases of sexual abuse by priests and the cover-up by bishops. Some victims Read more
Priest sexual offenders came from seminary classes in the 1940’s and 1950’s who were not trained to confront the upheavals of the 1960’s when behavioural norms were upended, researchers hired by the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference have concluded. The report conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, also found few priest offenders were pedophiles abusers were not Read more
The average age of men ordained to the priesthood in 2011 is trending younger with the average age for the 2011 class at 34, with more than half between the ages of 25 and 34. This is slightly younger than in 2010, and follows the trend over the past five years of new priests getting Read more