News Story of the Day

An Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston priest has been removed from ministry after an allegation surfaced that he raped and impregnated a girl in South America, according to church leaders.

FREMONT, Calif. (KGO) -- It wasn't the news parishioners at St. John's Catholic Church in San Lorenzo wanted to hear. Their former priest, Father David Mendoza-Vela was arrested on 30 counts of Lewd acts with a child on Thursday. 

Catholic Church officials asked the Dominican order Thursday to move an elderly priest out of his living quarters at St. Dominic’s Priory in Lakeview, a day after a victim-advocacy group exposed his presence on a list of Dominican religious order members who have been credibly accused of child molestation.

WHEELING – A former altar server and secretary to resigned Catholic Bishop Michael J. Bransfield has filed a lawsuit claiming the bishop sexually molested him.

The Colorado attorney general and Catholic Church last month announced an agreement that established an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse of children by clergy. This is Colorado's contribution to a broader search for truth that's occurring in states across the country. In some states, law enforcement officials are aggressively pursuing relevant information, but that's not happening in Colorado. In fact, the terms of the agreement are so favorable to the church and so incommensurate to the gravity of crimes uncovered in numerous other dioceses that it's doubtful to result in an honest account of abuses that took place in Colorado.

PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic — A former Roman Catholic priest who was defrocked and convicted of molesting two boys in New Jersey has found a new vocation in a new location — teaching children English at a private school in this resort town.

A 182-page report released Wednesday compiled information about nearly 400 Catholic clergy members and church staff in Illinois who have been publicly accused of sexual misconduct in the state’s six dioceses, including dozens in Chicago.

DALLAS — A former Jesuit Dallas student has sued the prep school over allegations that a priest sexually abused him. The priest, Donald Dickerson, died last year and was named by the school in December as one of 11 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey Wednesday sued the Catholic diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and its former bishop, Michael J. Bransfield, charging that they “knowingly employed pedophiles and failed to conduct adequate background checks” for people working in Catholic schools and camps, a Morrisey press release says.

In February, Pope Francis acknowledged a longstanding dirty secret in the Roman Catholic Church — the sexual abuse of nuns by priests.