priest sex abuse

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Wisconsin Sex Abuse Victim Sues Benedict

Claims then-cardinal knew of abuse, did not act

(Newser) - After years of the Vatican ignoring his claims of sexual abuse, an American man is suing the pope himself. The suit, filed in a US Federal Court, does not ask for money, but demands that the Vatican "come clean" by disclosing all files related to cases of child abuse....

Pope Vows 'Church Action' on Abuse

Benedict's first public comments on the scandal in a month

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI promised today that the Catholic Church would confront the clerical sex-abuse scandal, making his first public comments on the crisis days after meeting with victims. During his weekly public audience, Benedict recounted his tearful weekend meeting in Malta with eight men who say they were abused as...

Pope Celebrates Rocky 5th Anniversary

Beleaguered Vatican isn't exactly popping champagne

(Newser) - Today marks the fifth anniversary of Pope Benedict's ascension to the papacy, but they aren't exactly popping champagne at the beleaguered Vatican. At the moment Benedict is embroiled in a massive pedophilia scandal that could define his papal legacy, and it's not like he's had a charmed papacy until now,...

Teary Pope: We'll Protect Young From Abuse

Benedict expresses shame in Malta visit

(Newser) - Pope Benedict met with a group of clerical abuse victims today and promised them the church would do everything in its power to punish abusive priests and protect young people in the future. The Vatican said Benedict expressed his shame and sorrow at the pain the men and their families...

Women Could Save the Catholic Church
Women Could Save the Catholic Church
PEGGY NOONAN
Apr 16, 2010 8:33 AM CDT

Women Could Save the Catholic Church

Old church needs new blood in charge, writes Peggy Noonan

(Newser) - The Vatican shouldn't be allowed to let this latest round of abuse scandals fade away until some major changes are made, writes Peggy Noonan. The defensive, angry people at the highest levels of the church are too big a part of the problem to fix it, Noonan writes in the...

Pope Finally Talks Sex Abuse—Sort Of

Benedict says Church must do 'penance'

(Newser) - He might not have mentioned it explicitly, but Pope Benedict has apparently broken his deafening silence on the sex abuse scandals roiling the Catholic Church. The comments, which called for the church to do "penance" for its "sins," came in a homily delivered in the papal palace,...

Horrific Abuse Alleged at Monastery in Pope's Old Turf

Abuse transpired in Ratzinger's archdiocese

(Newser) - More bad news for the Catholic Church from Pope Benedict's native Germany, where monks and lay teachers stand accused of abusing students for decades at an elite Catholic boarding school near Munich. Allegations from more than 100 students that monks "brutally mistreated, sadistically tormented and, not least, sexually abused"...

Pope's House Tagged With Obscene Graffiti

Police say it involved church sex scandal

(Newser) - Some cheeky heathens have sprayed obscene graffiti on the house in southern Germany where Pope Benedict was born. Police tell Der Spiegel that the message was scrawled in foot-tall blue letters over the front door. They quickly had it painted over, and wouldn’t reveal what it said, except that...

Priest Calls for Pope to Resign, Applauded at Mass

Mass. Rev. James Scahill says Benedict lied, gets standing ovations

(Newser) - One Massachusetts priest says Pope Benedict is lying when he says the Vatican hasn’t covered up the sexual abuse of children. In four sermons over the weekend, Rev. James Scahill called on Benedict to resign over the scandal, the Longmeadow Republican reports. “There were standing ovations at two...

Vatican: Blame Homosexuality, Not Celibacy for Abuse

Gay rights groups slam Bertone's remarks on church sex scandals

(Newser) - The Pope's second-in-command did little to calm the furor surrounding the Vatican sex-abuse scandals yesterday by insisting that homosexuality, not celibacy, is to blame for priests attacking children. Vatican secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone told reporters in Chile—where, AP notes, the highest-profile church scandals have involved priests abusing young...

Vatican to Bishops: Report Sex Abuse to Cops

Guidelines the first to mandate clergy obey civil law

(Newser) - The Vatican today responded to allegations that it had concealed years of clerical sex abuse by mandating for the first time that bishops and other high-ranking clerics should report such crimes to police if required by law. "Where the civil state creates an obligation to report, bishops are required...

Calif. Priest's Victim: 'He Was God'

Four decades later, Stephen Kiesle's victim speaks out

(Newser) - It started with a 7-year-old girl innocently sitting on the lap of the playful "big kid" priest with the purple sneakers, and it quickly turned to sexual abuse that he framed as exorcisms. "He told me I had the devil inside me" as he touched her chest and...

Bishop: Vatican Abuse Uproar a 'Zionist Attack'

Italian priest allegedly blames Jews for sex abuse scandal

(Newser) - Jews are fanning the flames of the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal, an elderly Italian bishop has allegedly claimed—and American Jewish groups aren't too happy about it. A Catholic website quotes Giacomo Babini, 81, as saying the "powerful and refined" nature of criticism of the church suggests a...

Bishops Fight Sex Abuse Bill
 Bishops Fight Sex Abuse Bill 
Apr 12, 2010 2:52 AM CDT

Bishops Fight Sex Abuse Bill

Conn. legislation 'undermines church mission'

(Newser) - Connecticut bishops are using church pulpits to battle a Connecticut bill to remove the statute of limitations on child sex abuse. The state's three Roman Catholic bishops issued a weekend letter to be discussed at mass yesterday, saying the bill "would put all church institutions, including your parish, at...

Calif. Priest Was Immature, Obsessed By Kids

Peers were suspicious of Stephen Kiesle from the start

(Newser) - Even in his seminary days in the early '70s, there were questions about California priest Stephen Kiesle: "He was not grown up. He spent more time with kids than with people his own age. You get suspicious of that. There's something wrong there," says a former Oakland bishop....

Benedict Stonewalled on Defrocking Pedophile Priest

AP digs up 25-year-old letter that refutes pope's story

(Newser) - The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a US priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including "the good of the universal church," according to a 1985 letter bearing his signature. The correspondence, obtained by the AP, is the strongest challenge yet to...

Jon Stewart Pummels Pope
 Jon Stewart Pummels Pope 
Apr 8, 2010 6:09 AM CDT

Jon Stewart Pummels Pope

Host says Domino's Pizza more contrite than Church

(Newser) - Maureen Dowd has been nipping at Pope Benedict's heels, but you know you're in trouble when Jon Stewart takes aim at you. On last night's Daily Show , Stewart blasted the pontiff's defiance over his handling of sex abuse cases. "If any other organization had done anything close to...

Hey Benedict, Maybe You'll Listen to a Man

'Times' scribe turns column over to brother

(Newser) - Maureen Dowd suspends her blitzkrieg on Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church today and—because the all-boys network apparently is unable "to take a woman’s voice seriously"—turns her column over to her conservative, creche-collecting, "Vatican-II-made-me-wince" brother, Kevin. But a Dowd is a Dowd, and the...

Nixon-esque Pope Must Convert
 Nixon-esque Pope Must Convert 
Timothy Shriver
Apr 5, 2010 12:15 PM CDT

Nixon-esque Pope Must Convert

The Catholic Church is embroiled in its version of Watergate

(Newser) - The Catholic Church’s current scandal bears an uncanny resemblance to Watergate. What at first looks like an isolated crime has slowly escalated, ultimately revealing corruption at the highest levels of authority. The pope isn’t going to resign—the church isn’t a democracy, and it needn’t bow...

Hardest Word for Pope: Sorry

 Hardest Word for Pope: Sorry 
Apr 5, 2010 8:10 AM CDT

Hardest Word for Pope: Sorry

Why Benedict won't be apologizing anytime soon

(Newser) - Pope Benedict didn't join the many bishops in countries plagued by sex abuse scandals who said "sorry" during this Holy Week, and you won't hear that word come from his mouth any time soon. That's because the Pope "operates on an entirely different public relations plane to media-savvy...

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