Tag Archives: Catholic Church

The Associated Press reports: Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses have paid nearly $84 million to 564 victims of sexual abuse, a tally that’s sure to grow substantially in the new year as compensation fund administrators work through a backlog of claims, according to an Associated Press review. To date, the average payout across all seven dioceses has exceeded $148,000 — a …

NPR reports: A Roman Catholic church in rural Louisiana hoping to maximize its blessings has come up with a way to do it: filling up a crop-duster plane with holy water and letting the sanctified liquid mist an entire community. “We can bless more area in a shorter amount of time,” Rev. Matthew Barzare of St. Anne Church in Cow …

USA Today reports: France’s Notre Dame Cathedral, which failed to host Christmas services Wednesday for the first time in more than 200 years, may never recover from the devastating fire that collapsed the roof and an iconic spire, its rector said. Monsignor Patrick Chauvet said the church, which dates back more than 800 years, has been left so fragile that …

The BBC reports: The Pope has prayed for a softening of “stony and self-centred hearts” to help end injustice in the world, in his Christmas Day message. From the Vatican balcony, Pope Francis spoke of “walls of indifference” being put up to people fleeing hardship in the hope of finding a better life. For change to happen for the better, …

The National Catholic Reporter reports: The Legion of Christ religious order, which was discredited by its pedophile founder and the cult-like practices he imposed, says an internal investigation has identified 33 priests and 71 seminarians who sexually abused minors over the past eight decades. A third of the priestly abusers were themselves victims of the Legion’s late founder, the Rev. …

Reuters reports: For the first time in more than 200 years, worshippers will not be able to attend Christmas mass at Notre-Dame cathedral, still being restored after a devastating fire. “There won’t be a midnight mass at Notre-Dame. The last time this happened was during the French Revolution. Since 1803, there have always been Christmas masses at Notre-Dame,” a Paris …

The Associated Press reports: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday he does not support a proposal to further relax Mexico’s strict legal separation of church and state, throwing cold water on a bill that would upend longstanding political doctrine in the country. The proposal would modify the Law of Religious Associations and Public Worship to eliminate historic language enshrining …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis has abolished the “pontifical secret” used in clergy sexual abuse cases, after mounting criticism that the high degree of confidentiality has been used to protect pedophiles, silence victims and keep law enforcement from investigating crimes. In a new document, Francis decreed that information in abuse cases must be protected by church leaders to ensure …

The Buffalo News reports: The press office for Pope Francis early Wednesday announced that Buffalo Bishop Richard J. Malone has stepped down. The Vatican press office described the departure as “renunciation of the pastoral government of the Diocese of Buffalo.” Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of the Albany Diocese will take over as apostolic administrator of the Buffalo Diocese until Malone’s …

The Associated Press reports: At the end of another long day trying to sign up new clients accusing the Roman Catholic Church of sexual abuse, lawyer Adam Slater gazes out the window of his high-rise Manhattan office at one of the great symbols of the church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “I wonder how much that’s worth?” he muses. Across the country, …

Reuters reports: Pope Francis said on Friday politicians who rage against homosexuals, gypsies and Jews remind him of Hitler. “It is not coincidental that at times there is a resurgence of symbols typical of Nazism,” Francis said in an address to participants of an international conference on criminal law. “And I must confess to you that when I hear a …

CBS News reports: A Roman Catholic bishop named by Pope Francis to investigate the church’s response to clergy sexual abuse in Buffalo, New York, has himself been accused of sexual abuse of a child, an attorney for the alleged victim notified the church this week. The attorney informed Catholic officials in New Jersey that he is preparing a lawsuit on …

The Associated Press reports: Catholic bishops from across the Amazon called Saturday for the ordination of married men as priests to address the clergy shortage in the region, an historic proposal that would upend centuries of Roman Catholic tradition. The majority of 180 bishops from nine Amazonian countries also called for the Vatican to reopen a debate on ordaining women …

Via press release from the Vatican: The Click To Pray eRosary is an interactive, smart and app-driven wearable device that serves as a tool for learning how to pray the rosary for peace in the world. It can be worn as a bracelet and is activated by making the sign of the cross. It is synchronized with a free app …

Time Magazine reports: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester was the first in New York to seek bankruptcy protection under the weight of new sexual misconduct lawsuits, but lawyers and church leaders say it may not be the last. All eight of the state’s Roman Catholic dioceses face financial pressures as a result of the state’s new Child Victims Act, …

The Washington Post reports: It was billed as a holy journey, a pilgrimage with West Virginia Bishop Michael J. Bransfield to “pray, sing and worship” at the National Shrine in Washington. Catholics from remote areas of one of the nation’s poorest states paid up to $190 for hotel rooms and overnight bus rides to the nation’s capital. Unknown to the …

The Tennessean reports: The students at St. Edward Catholic School in Nashville can no longer checkout the popular Harry Potter book series from their school’s library. The seven-book series depicting the magical adventures of a young wizard and his friends was removed from the library because of their content, the Rev. Dan Reehil, a pastor at the Roman Catholic parish …

NBC Philadelphia reports: A Chester County priest who took the place of a disgraced Archdiocese official is now in trouble with the law as well after being accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his own church. Father Joseph McLoone, 56, of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, was arrested Wednesday and charged with felony theft and other related offenses after allegedly …

ABC News reports: Hundreds of lawsuits are expected to be filed in New York today as the state’s window allowing alleged child sexual abuse survivors to seek civil recourse opens. Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed the Child Victims Act, which allows civil claims of child sexual abuse from any time period to be brought forth, in spite of existing …

The New York Daily News reports: The handwritten missives, many signed simply “Uncle T.,” were sent to aspiring young priests as part of defrocked cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s perverse wooing of his victims, according to a pair of abuse prevention experts. Several postcards and letters sent by McCarrick to his sexual targets were made public by The Associated Press, with experts …