News Story of the Day

CHICAGO — Bishop Robert Finn was found guilty of failing to report suspected child abuse, becoming the highest-ranking US Catholic Church official convicted in clergy sex abuse scandals.

Ten years ago this summer, America's Catholic bishops pledged to aggressively investigate allegations of sexual predation by clerics, to show "zero tolerance" for abuse, and to be transparent about the problem. Since then, however, church officials have consistently lined up to protect themselves and their clergy in case after case.

Franciscan friar Father Benedict Groeschel has stepped down as host of EWTN’s Sunday Night Prime television show following his apology for making comments about the sexual abuse of minors.

SAGINAW, MI (WNEM) - A group of concerned citizens is pressing Saginaw Bishop Joseph Cistone about his role in covering up a case of sex abuse in Philadelphia. 

PROSECUTORS will get another opportunity to try the Rev. James J. Brennan, 49, a Roman Catholic priest charged with attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996 and related offenses.

An Iowa woman contemplating a return to the Roman Catholic Church last year agreed to meet with a priest on one condition — he remove his collar. “Roman collars still frighten me,” Kathleen Bowman, 47, told the priest.

JEFFERSON CITY • Two groups are trying to block a new state law that prohibits the disruption of worship services, claiming that the measure is too vague and will infringe on their rights to free speech.

They may have escaped criminal prosecution, but according to a memorandum of law filed Monday in Common Pleas Court, Bishops Edward P. Cullen and Joseph R. Cistone can expect to be named as defendants in an ongoing civil case against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia regarding the sexual abuse of a former 10-year-old altar boy.

In the law there's something called a "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation." They're filed by a powerful individuals or organization who want to shut up their critics by burying them in legal fees and hassles.

OF ALL the organisations that serve America’s poor, few do more good work than the Catholic church: its schools and hospitals provide a lifeline for millions. Yet even taking these virtues into account, the finances of the Catholic church in America are an unholy mess. The sins involved in its book-keeping are not as vivid or grotesque as those on display in the various sexual-abuse cases that have cost the American church more than $3 billion so far; but the financial mismanagement and questionable business practices would have seen widespread resignations at the top of any other public institution.