News Story of the Day

By Judy Dushku, February 13, 2018, The Cut

The most shocking thing about the outing of Rob Porter this week is not that there is another accused wife-batterer in the White House — it’s who did the outing: his Mormon ex-wives. Mormon women pretty reliably show up in comedy and drama as naïve, passive, and sweet mothers; gentle women who do not take the reins in blowing up an abuser and a criminal.

In bringing down Porter, Jennie Willoughby and Colbie Holderness defied their church bishops, who had dismissed their allegations about how he punched and choked them, and instead went public. They shared photographs, and details of the alleged abuse, and refused to back down — even in the face of a president who doubts them. To see Mormon women take on a Mormon man of such stature is quite a new image.

By Royce Millar, Ben Schneiders, Chris Vedelago, February 12, 2018, The Sydney Morning Herald

The Catholic Church in Australia is worth tens of billions of dollars, making it one of the country’s biggest non-government property owners, and massively wealthier than it has claimed in evidence to major inquiries into child sexual abuse.

By Robert Mickens, Rome, February 9, 2018, La Croix International

The biggest error Catholic leaders have made regarding the church’s response to priests abusing children

has been the exclusion of women leading the policy-making process

The last couple of weeks have not been what anyone in his or her right mind would call the most brightly shining moment in the current pontificate.

First, the cardinal in charge of the Roman Curia’s office on the laity blocked Ireland’s former president, Mary MacAleese, from speaking at an International Woman’s Day event originally scheduled to take place inside the Vatican. In response, the organizers simply moved the venue to the nearby Jesuit headquarters.

By Justin A. Hinkley, Lansing State Journal, February 9, 2018

EAST LANSING - Michigan State University was expected on Friday to have turned over some 45,000 pages of documents to investigators at the Michigan Attorney General's Office, with more to come on "a rolling basis," according to a letter from the university's attorneys to investigators.

Meanwhile, lawmakers on Friday gave the university until Wednesday to hand over documents in their own investigation into how MSU officials responded to Larry Nassar scandal. 

By The Associated Press, February 9, 2018, Salt Lake Tribune

By John Woolfolk, February 7, 2018, Bay Area News Group, The Mercury News

The number of women claiming they were sexually abused as students at a prestigious San Jose Catholic girls high school has swelled to 20 while the number of accused staff has grown to eight. The mounting accusations surfaced as nearly 5,000 former students and their supporters have signed a petition demanding an independent investigation of how the administration handled reported abuse.

By Danae King, February 6, 2018, The Columbus Dispatch

A property dispute has brought to light sexual-assault allegations against a Columbus bishop who founded a group of Pentecostal churches around the world.

By Alex Costello, Patch Staff, Feb 5, 2018, Rockville Centre Patch

A report released on Monday by a group of attorneys seeks to compile all of the allegations of sexual abuse made against priests in the Diocese of Rockville Centre into one place so residents can more easily find out if priests in their parishes have had abuse allegations made against them, and if those allegations were credible.

The report, titled "Hidden Disgrace II," was compiled by the attorney group Lawyers Helping Survivors of Child Sex Abuse. It is a group of attorneys made up of lawyers from the firms of Weitz & Luxenberg P.C; James, Vernon & Weeks, P.A.; and Noaker Law Firm LLC, to help victims of child sexual assault.

By NICOLE WINFIELD and EVA VERGARA, February 5, 2018, AP

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis received a victim’s letter in 2015 that graphically detailed how a priest sexually abused him and how other Chilean clergy ignored it, contradicting the pope’s recent insistence that no victims had come forward to denounce the cover-up, the letter’s author and members of Francis’ own sex- abuse commission have told The Associated Press.

The fact that Francis received the eight-page letter, obtained by the AP, challenges his insistence that he has “zero tolerance” for sex abuse and cover-ups. It also calls into question his stated empathy with abuse survivors, compounding the most serious crisis of his five-year papacy.