Religion, 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.

There have been nearly 17,000 victims of clergy sexual abuse since 1950 and legal settlements for their suffering continue to climb. Add another $10 million to the $2.5 billion that the Catholic Church in the USA has spent in confronting the clergy sex abuse crisis.

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.

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.

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.”