News Story of the Day
Man acquitted of beating of priest he said sexually abused him
SAN JOSE, Calif. (WLS) - William Lynch, the California man who admitted he pummeled a priest who he said abused him as a boy, has been found not guilty of felony assault and elder abuse charges.
Teacher sacked but not reported to police: Catholic principal failed sexually assaulted students
One of the state's most senior Catholic education officials failed to report the sexual assault of four of his students at a southern Sydney school in the late 1970s, a confidential internal investigation has found.
Pope fires Slovak bishop in rare show of papal power
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI fired a 52-year-old Slovak bishop for apparently mismanaging his diocese in a rare show of papal power over bishops that could have implications for U.S. sex abuse cases.
Pope appoints German to lead doctrinal office
Mueller's appointment to a powerful job the pontiff himself held for more than two decades - prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - comes at a time when the Vatican is beset by controversies including allegations of corruption and internal intrigues, as well as a lingering child abuse scandal.
Kansas City diocese ordered to hand over documents in sexual misconduct case
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The first Catholic bishop criminally charged in the decades-long clergy sex abuse crisis will have to grant prosecutors access to a range of files regarding his diocese's response to previous accusations of clergy abuse, a county judge ordered Thursday.
The Earthly Power of a Philadelphia Jury
After months of testimony and deliberations the Philadelphia jurors who found Msgr. William Lynn guilty of child endangerment did more than any Vatican official has ever done to address the problem of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. This was made possible by the simple fact that the men and women of the jury confronted him as a peer, in a system that confers equal rights and responsibilities upon all.
St. Paul priest arrested; allegations of child abuse
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A St. Paul priest has been removed from his post after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused a minor.
Will Lynch trial: Defense alleges prosecutorial misconduct
Prosecutors in the San Jose priest-beating trial have said they pursued the case despite the accused man's understandable motive -- retaliating against the cleric he said brutally molested him as a child -- because it's the right thing to do.
Deadlocked or not, the priest sex-abuse jury did its job
SO IT'S still not over. After an 11-week trial, with almost 2,000 documents, 60 witnesses, multiple references to a dead cardinal and a defendant's suggestion that taking a 14-year-old to bed after watching porn with him was "borderline inappropriate" and not wrong, wrong, wrong, the jury has yet to reach a verdict in the landmark trial of Philadelphia Archdiocese Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan.
Sex Offenders Find an Unlikely Ally in the Catholic Church
There is no statute of limitation (i.e., a time frame set by government in which a crime may be prosecuted) in the U.S. for murder. So why are there state-by-state time limits for sexual assault, and why is the Catholic Church actively attempting to protect sex offenders from prosecution?
50 State AG Call for Grand Jury
Write a letter to the attorney general of your state. Demand, request, and beg them to impanel a grand jury.
Any investigation must be:
- independent of and separate from the church
- must have subpoena powers and ability to compel testimony under oath
Anything short of these criteria is a sham and whitewash.
In addition, write letters to the editor, make phone calls to politicians as they can apply pressure to keep them responsive to our demand. We need to make efforts to ensure that they follow up on what the state is doing to investigate these crimes.
The Attorneys General of forty states have inquired about the grand jury process in Pennsylvania. Let's get statewide investigations going in fifty states.
Current list of active investigations, associated hotlines, websites, and email addresses
Survivors can use to report their experiences.
Note to Letter Writers
Use your own words and style of writing. Cut and paste from the templates as you wish. Include your experiences, whether as a survivor or as a member of the community. And relate your letter to the state you were abused in or state now living in.