Child Abuse, Church | featured news

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.

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.”

The church expressed “shock” after clerics were detained as part of an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse.

Pope Benedict said on Tuesday the crisis of sexual abuse of children by priests should make the Church acknowledge the "terrifying" truth that its greatest threat comes from "sin within the Church".

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 XVI was "deeply affected" by a meeting with victims of abuse by Catholic clergy, he said Wednesday, in his first public comments on the scandal in more than a month.

With the Roman Catholic Church facing a series of pedophilia scandals, some observers have begun to ask whether the tradition of celibacy in the priesthood has contributed to child abuse.

A leading cardinal, making an unusual address in defense of Pope Benedict at the start of Easter Sunday Mass, said the Church would not be intimidated by "petty gossip" about sexual abuse of children by priests.

Reports that the Vatican intends to force the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland to resign are denied.

Pope Benedict shares the "outrage, betrayal and shame" felt by the Irish people over a government report that said Church leaders covered up widespread sexual abuse of children for 30 years, the Vatican said on Friday.