Child Abuse, Child Sex Abuse | featured news

Pope Francis has indicated that he will act against sex abuse cases in the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican said in a statement Friday that the pope has urged the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith to "act with determination with regard to cases of sexual abuse." The statement cited measures promoted by Benedict XVI to protect minors, helping victims of sexual violence and taking necessary action against perpetrators. U.S. victims of clergy abuse have demanded swift and bold actions from the new Jesuit pontiff.

A South African cardinal on Monday apologized for offending victims of child abuse when he described pedophilia as an illness and not a crime in a media interview. Victims' rights groups and others said the comments by Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, the Catholic Archbishop of Durban, comments were insensitive, especially given perceptions the Catholic Church has not done enough to root out abuse.

Popular pressure is mounting in the U.S. and Italy to keep California Cardinal Roger Mahony away from the conclave to elect the next pope because of his role shielding sexually abusive priests, a movement targeting one of the most prominent of a handful of compromised cardinals scheduled to vote next month....

The Archdiocese of L.A. took $115 million from its cemeteries' maintenance fund in 2007, nearly depleting it. The move seems legal, but it was not announced, and relatives of the dead were not told.

'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.

Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky's bid for a new trial on child sex abuse charges was rejected by a Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday.

Statute of limitations is the main stumbling block to prosecuting Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and aides in the sex abuse files from the 1980s released this week, experts say. Over the last decade, there have been numerous calls to prosecute Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his top aides for their mishandling of clergy sex abuse. At least three grand juries, two district attorneys and a U.S. attorney have subpoenaed documents and summoned witnesses.

Flowers and mementos left by supporters adorned Joe Paterno's gravesite Tuesday, a year after the longtime Penn State coach's death, while at the spot where a bronze statue of him used to stand, a makeshift sign of cardboard flapped in a cold wind....

The allegations were almost too heinous and far-fetched to be believed. A New Hampshire lawyer who graduated at the top of her class and credited her success to Christianity was accused of using her 14-year-old daughter as a sexual pawn, at one point even engaging in a sexual act with the girl on camera.

Amid reports of widespread sexual abuse of children in the late 1980s, several leading youth organizations began conducting criminal background checks of volunteers and staff members. Big Brothers Big Sisters ordered the checks for all volunteers starting in 1986. Boys and Girls Clubs of America recommended their use the same year. One of the nation's oldest and largest youth groups, however, was opposed — the Boy Scouts of America.