News Story of the Day

Spanish society has been shaken by allegations of the theft and trafficking of thousands of babies by nuns, priests and doctors, which started under Franco and continued up to the 1990s.

I first met Manoli Pagador in Getafe, in a working-class suburb of Madrid. She was attending a meeting for people affected by the scandal Spaniards call "ninos robados" - stolen children.

Police are hunting a former abbot from London over a string of sex offences dating back 20 years.

Father Laurence Soper, 80, abbot of the Catholic Ealing Abbey from 1991 to 2000, is wanted over child abuse. The crimes date back to when he taught at St Benedict's School, a private Catholic school at the west London institution.

SAINT JOHN - A man who says he was sexually abused as a child is setting up a support group to help abuse survivors.

Dave Mantin is working to set up a local chapter of SNAP, which stands for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. It would be the first SNAP group in the Maritimes.

After a worker raised questions about a priest sexual abuse case, the Kansas City diocese disabled her email, took away her laptop and confiscated her business cards, a lawsuit claims.

That eventually made it impossible for her to do her job, forcing her to resign, the former worker claims in the lawsuit filed Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court.

Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former church official awaiting trial for allegedly protecting sexually abusive priests, drew words of encouragement from Philadelphia's new archbishop and a standing ovation from scores of priests at a private gathering last month, according to people familiar with the event.

During the invitation-only dinner for Archbishop Charles J. Chaput at a parish hall in Montgomery County, Chaput singled out Lynn in the crowd and noted how difficult the ordeal has been for him, according to one priest who attended and two people briefed by others at the gala.

The two-story, beige-brick shelter in north Houston was supposed to be a haven for immigrant children and teenagers, a place with teddy bears and bins of toys that they could temporarily call home while they were stranded in a foreign country, separated from their families.

And just when I think I can't read anything more stomach-churning about the cover-up of sexual abuse of minors in Catholic institutions, this story comes along:  the Houston Chronicle reported this past week that Catholic Charities of Houston-Galveston is under investigation by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) for filing false reports about a case in which a boy at St. Michael's Home for Children was allegedly sexually assaulted repeatedly while under the home's care.  The assaults are said to have involved the sexual abuse of this resident by other minors in the home's care.

A major inquiry into the abuse of children in institutions run by the Catholic Church and the state is to be launched in Northern Ireland, it has been announced.

The Stormont Executive confirmed the probe will be phased-in over the next two years and will be armed with the power to compel the release of records plus the co-operation of witnesses.

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 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.