News Story of the Day

Maybe your first reaction when you heard the vile news out of Penn State was outrage. Maybe you wanted school officials, including longtime head coach Joe Paterno, to pay with their jobs for what happened.

(Reuters) - Catholic Ireland's stunning decision to close its embassy to the Vatican is a huge blow to the Holy See's prestige and may be followed by other countries which feel the missions are too expensive, diplomatic sources said on Friday.

JOLIET — A group representing people sexually abused by priests staged a small protest Wednesday outside the Catholic Diocese of Joliet offices.

Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and SNAP member Barbara Meyer held up childhood photos of abuse victims as they criticized the recent appointment of the Rev. Jeffery Salwach to the LaVerna Friary in St. Louis.

DUBLIN, IRELAND -- In yet another sign that the beleaguered Catholic Church in Ireland has a long and arduous road to a brighter future, almost half of Irish people polled say they now have an unfavorable view of the church.

Sexual abuse of a child by clergymen is a horrific crime, a crime that takes place all over the world, including here in Fargo. And it can take survivors years to come forward, but one national group is doing everything they can to change that.

These are all reactions to my post last week about Rod Dreher's article on Bishop Finn's Indictment.

Tim Kosnoff was intereviewed extensively for this newspiece by the CBC regarding sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts. Below is a link to the CBC page where you can view the entire video yourself (the "geo-fence" around the site has been taken down temporarily to allow American viewers access.)

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.