News Story of the Day

RICHMOND, Va. (Martinsville Bulletin) — A priest in Virginia has been removed from his post after maintaining a blog critical of the Catholic Church’s handling of the sexual abuse scandal.

(Warning. This report includes graphic language that may trigger bad reactions in those who have been sexually abused.)

Since March 2019, 15 bishops (see below) have been named in lawsuits either as perpetrators of sexual abuse or for covering up the sexual assaults of others. This is important because while “priests were raping boys and girls, the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades, monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals were protected; many were promoted,” stated a 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report.

A royal commission's findings about Cardinal George Pell's handling of child sexual abuse complaints won't be released for weeks.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court ordered the dismissal of a criminal case Tuesday against a Mexican megachurch leader on charges of child rape and human trafficking on procedural grounds.

A former choirboy who accused Australian Cardinal George Pell of molesting him said Wednesday he accepts the top Vatican cleric’s acquittal, but urged survivors of child sex abuse to keep coming forward.

A new centre designed to support child victims and witnesses of crime is to be opened in Scotland. Children will be able to be interviewed in the child-friendly facility, away from police stations and courtrooms.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia’s highest court on Tuesday overturned the sexual abuse conviction of Cardinal George Pell, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic leader ever found guilty in the church’s clergy pedophilia crisis.

In the UK, calls to the national abuse hotline went up by 65% this weekend, according to the domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales. Meanwhile, the UN has warned that women in poorer countries and smaller homes are likely to have fewer ways to report abuse.

TOKYO - The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan has found 16 cases of sexual abuse against minors spanning from the 1950s to the 2010s in its internal probe of churches in the country, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday.

For years Bernie was convinced that if he reported the abuse, he would not be believed.

"I would hear Pell's become Bishop," Bernie says. "Pell's become Archbishop. Pell's become a Cardinal. Who's gonna believe a little boy from a home against that conglomerate? You know against that bloody goliath?"