Child Abuse, Bishop Child Sex Abuse | featured news

'It's obvious that the L.A. Archdiocese and everyone working with them were aware of those of us being abused,' says Matt Severson, who says he was molested as a boy. The release of thousands of pages of church files showing how Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and other top Los Angeles Archdiocese officials dealt with priest molestation cases has generated outrage and anguish at parishes across Southern California.

Bishop Eddie Long, head of one of the nation's largest mega churches, announced Sunday he will take "time off" from the pulpit to work on his family. The announcement came three days after his wife Vanessa filed for divorce.

Clergy sex abuse victims upset that no high-ranking Roman Catholic leaders have been prosecuted for sheltering guilty priests are asking the International Criminal Court to investigate the pope and top Vatican cardinals for possible crimes against humanity.

The Vatican on Saturday vigorously rejected claims it sabotaged efforts by Irish bishops to report priests who sexually abused children to police and accused the Irish prime minister of making an “unfounded” attack against the Holy See. The Vatican issued a lengthy response to the Irish government following Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s unprecedented July 20 denunciation of the Vatican’s handling of abuse, in which he cited the “dysfunction, the disconnection, the elitism that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day.”

Thousands of priests from around the world have massed in Rome in one of the largest such gatherings ever in a major show of support for Pope ...

The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of a leading German bishop who is being probed for allegedly physically abusing minors and financial misconduct.

Pope Benedict will appoint a special envoy to run and reform an influential Roman Catholic priestly order whose late founder was discovered to have been a sexual molester and to have fathered at least one child.

The recent scandal over handling of child abuse in the Catholic church has again focused attention on celibacy.

Belgium's longest serving bishop resigned Friday, saying he was "enormously sorry" for having sexually abused a young boy about ...