Religion, Abuse | featured news

Attorneys for nearly 150 people who claim sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests made nearly 10,000 pages of previously sealed internal church documents public Sunday, revealing at least one previously unknown decades-old case in which a priest under police investigation was allowed to leave the U.S. after the Diocese of San Diego intervened.

The Vatican for the first time released guidelines that explicitly say that bishops and other high-ranking clerics should report cases of abuse to police if required by law.

Ireland’s Catholic leader expressed shame over investigating but not reporting abuse cases 35 years ago.

The Vatican denounces what it calls aggressive attempts to drag Pope Benedict XVI into the spreading scandals of pedophile priests in his German homeland.