News Story of the Day

Nearly 1,700 priests and other clergy members that the Roman Catholic Church considers credibly accused of child sexual abuse are living under the radar with little to no oversight from religious authorities or law enforcement, decades after the first wave of the church abuse scandal roiled U.S. dioceses, an Associated Press investigation has found.

A report released Tuesday says that 281 people have been sexually abused by members of the Diocese of Bridgeport since its inception in 1953 -- and nearly all of them were minors. In a report commissioned by the diocese itself, retired state court judge Robert Holzberg found that they had been sexually abused by 71 priests. 

Pennsylvania state Rep. Tom Murt slid into a pew at his childhood church, seeking a break from politics and the stress of work. Instead, Murt got an earful.

In his sermon, the priest talked about a bill pending in the state legislature that would give survivors of child sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers — and the institutions that hid abuse. 

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) says the most recent allegations of sexual abuse involving a priest in the Cincinnati Archdiocese has spurred more rounds of questions. A SNAP-sponsored event Sunday night in West Chester brought survivors, counselors and therapists together to answer questions from the public.

As an advocate and a survivor in Mississippi, I think I am qualified to speak to the history of the Diocese of Jackson and the Catholic Church and their handling of sexual abuse claims.

A recent report by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington was billed as an exhaustive accounting of sexual abuse allegations against Vermont priests. Yet the Edmundites, members of the Colchester-based Catholic order that founded Saint Michael's College, have created their own list of 10 accused priests — and released it only on an obscure website where it has gone virtually unnoticed.

DENVER – As investigations in other states produce arrests and unearth abuse allegations within the Catholic Church, some people in Colorado are questioning if negotiations before the state’s review began will protect the church’s reputation and prevent the disclosure of decades worth of closely held secrets.

Canadian clergy-abuse survivors gathered in Cornwall, Ont., this week to lobby for reforms, asking Catholic Church leadership to boost disclosure, publish the names of credibly accused priests in the country and create external oversight to monitor how the church handles sexual-abuse claims.

BRISTOL, R.I. — When the Rev. Barry Gamache arrived at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in early 1997, it had been a dozen years since a former longtime parish priest was hauled away for sexually abusing teenage boys.