News Story of the Day

Jason Berry, Feb. 8, 2016, National Catholic Reporter

On Feb. 12, Pope Francis flies to Mexico, a vast land scarred by barbaric drug cartels and deep poverty that are pushing migrants to America -- all front-burner issues for a papacy advocating mercy and justice.

Amid this, a new book, El Imperior Financierio de Los Legionarios de Cristo was published in December by Grijalbo in Mexico City. There is no English translation as yet. Written by Raúl Olmos, an investigative journalist in Mexico, the book focuses on the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order founded by the late Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, a notorious pedophile dismissed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 to "a life of prayer and penitence." The home base of the order is Mexico City, in the world's second-largest Catholic country (after Brazil).

By Mike Beaudet, February 6, 2016, WCVB 5

BOSTON —It was one of the promises from the landmark settlement of church sex abuse cases from the Archdiocese of Boston: the church would pay for counseling to try to fix the lives their abusive priests had damaged.

But now, victims and their advocates tell 5 Investigates the Archdiocese has in some cases begun backsliding on that promise, putting up more resistance than ever before to paying for treatments.

BY MIKE MILLER, 02/05/2016, People

He no longer belongs to any sort of organized religion, but Phil Saviano, whose pivotal role in exposing the child sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church is showcased in the Oscar-nominated film Spotlight, appears to have had something almost like divine intervention on his side. 

BY PATRICIA MILLER  FEBRUARY 2, 2016, Religion Dispatches

Fast on the heels of the news that a Bavarian boys choir directed by Pope Benedict’s brother was a hotbed of physical and sexual abuse for decades, comes the allegation that Cardinal Gerhard Müller covered up the abuse when he was the bishop of Regensburg.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, the allegation is being made by the former head of the lay diocesan council in Regensburg, Germany, who said that Müller and a deputy “systematically” covered up the abuse, disbanded the diocesan council to thwart outside investigation, and installed at least one known abuser priest in a parish who then committed more acts of abuse.

By Tylar Bacome, February 1, 2016, WBNS-10TV

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Joel Wright appeared on a Vermont CBS affiliate WCAX not once but twice, at 16-years-old and 13-years-old; both times he was excited about a planned trip to a papal mass.

It was a sharp contrast to the 23-year-old seminary student who appeared in federal court on Monday on two felony charges for allegedly planning a trip to Tijuana, Mexico to adopt a 1-year-old and 4-year-old child for the purpose of raping and molesting.

Elisa Hahn, KING 5 News, January 28, 2016

SEATTLE -- Two weeks ago the Seattle Catholic Archdiocese posted a list of 77 clergy members who are deemed by the church to be abusers of children. A victims group claims that predator list is incomplete.

By Tom Dennis, January 27, 2016, Grand Forks Herald

By Sean Evan, Jan 25, 2016, wtvm.com

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) -  The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, says they want the public to be aware of seven credibly accused Catholic clerics who have worked in Georgia, but haven't been publicly called out until now.

The SNAP representatives WTOC spoke to want the names of those priests out there, in case there are any victims who might not have come forward yet. SNAP representatives gave WTOC the names of seven clerics who at one time worked in Georgia, some in the Diocese of Savannah, who have been credibly accused of crimes against children in other states, but not necessarily Georgia.

By Archie Ingersoll on Jan 24, 2016 at 5:45 a.m., Inforum