News Story of the Day

Children's shelter tried to cover up assault, feds claim

Senior management with Catholic Charities attempted to mislead federal officials about a sexual assault at St. Michael's Home for Children, doctoring incident reports and failing to seek medical treatment for the child victim for days, according to a federal report.


Minister stands firm on abuse plans

MINISTER FOR Children Frances Fitzgerald is “not for turning” when it comes to putting the State’s Children First child protection guidelines on a statutory footing, she said yesterday.


Abuse scandal, rows blight pope’s image

Pope Benedict XVI's election sparked joy in Germany, but the Church's reaction to a sex abuse scandal and a series of controversies have dented his image ahead of his first state trip home.


Why the Pope must face justice at The Hague

We survivors of clergy sex abuse have brought our evidence to the ICC so that the Vatican might finally account for its cover-up

by Barbara Blaine

When it comes to holding the Catholic Church accountable for sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy, all roads lead to Rome. That is what my organisation, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap), concluded after years of seeking justice in other venues and being turned away.


Child abuse victims accuse pope of crimes against humanity

AN INTERNATIONAL group for victims of sexual abuse by priests said Tuesday had asked the International Criminal Court to prosecute Pope Benedict XVI for crimes against humanity.


Hague Is Asked to Investigate Vatican Over Abuse

By Laurie Goodstein, NY Times

Human rights lawyers and victims of clergy sexual abuse said they would file a complaint on Tuesday urging the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate and prosecute Pope Benedict XVIand three top Vatican officials for crimes against humanity for what they described as abetting and covering up the rape and sexual assault of children by priests.


Cullen: Church oversight lax on sex abuse

Deputy Philadelphia District Attorney Charles Gallagher was keenly aware that he had the bishop of the Allentown Catholic Diocese in the witness chair, yet he was finding it difficult to beat back the anger that was welling up inside him.


Judge Upholds Key Elements In Maciel Sex Abuse Case

By EDMUND H. MAHONY

The Hartford Courant

A state judge has upheld key elements of a lawsuit claiming that for years the Vatican ignored allegations of child sexual abuse by a priest who founded the Legionaries of Christ, a secretive Catholic order based in Connecticut.


Crookston Diocese Settles With Alleged Victim

By: Scott Theisen

A woman who says she was sexually abused by a former priest in northern Minnesota when she was 14 has reached a $750,000 settlement that requires the Diocese of Crookston to warn parishioners about the abuse and take steps to protect kids in the future.


The Taoiseach got it right but the Vatican gets it wrong once again

By Fergus Finlay

THE gimlet eye of a canon lawyer. Read the "Response of the Holy See to the Government of Ireland" — the Vatican’s response to the criticism levelled at them by Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore — and that’s all you’ll see.


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