A secretive Archdiocese of San Francisco panel tasked with reviewing child sexual abuse allegations against priests has over the past decade returned more than half of accused clergy to their ministerial duties, including a priest who faced five abuse complaints, according to documents ordered released by a federal judge.
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Abuse survivors sound alarm as cardinals prepare to pick next pope
Faithful pay their respects to Pope Francis lying in state inside St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, April 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
The Washington Times
April 24, 2025
By Emma Ayers
American survivors of clergy sex abuse are issuing a clear warning as cardinals prepare to gather in Rome to elect the next pope: Don’t repeat the past.
The advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is demanding that the upcoming conclave choose a pontiff who has not covered up abuse and who will commit, on his first day, to a binding zero-tolerance law.
“The conclave can’t be another smoke-filled room where survivors get ignored,” SNAP spokeswoman Sarah Pearson told the Daily Mail. “If they pick another pope who plays defense for abusers, the damage will be permanent.”
When he received the role of pontiff, Pope Francis inherited a church mired in scandal. In response, he repeatedly made clear his intent to instigate change.
Abuse victim groups say he didn’t do nearly enough.
Cardinal Accused of Hiding Priest Sex Abuse Will Help Close Pope Francis’ Casket
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who was accused of covering up cases of abuse as archbishop of Los Angeles, will have an official role in the ceremonies around Francis’ funeral.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles, covered up cases of sexual abuse by priests.Credit...Max Rossi/Reuters
New York Times
April 25, 2025
By Jonathan Wolfe
Follow our live coverage for the funeral of Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Basilica.
An American cardinal who was accused of covering up cases of sexual abuse by priests and was later stripped of some duties, is set to play an official role in the ceremonies surrounding Pope Francis’ funeral.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles, will participate in the closing of the pope’s casket at St. Peter’s Basilica on Friday evening and in his burial at the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore on Saturday, according to Vatican announcements.
The cardinals taking part were chosen based on seniority, a spokesman for the Vatican, Matteo Bruni, said at a news briefing on Thursday.
Cardinal Mahony, 89, was the archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 until his retirement from the Roman Catholic Church in 2011. In 2013, internal church personnel files released as part of a civil case revealed that Cardinal Mahony had played a role in covering up cases of sexual abuse by priests.
Child sexual abuse scandal cast long shadow over Francis’s papacy
Issue dogged Francis throughout his time as head of Catholic church, with abuse survivors saying he failed to do enough
Sexual abuse survivors and members of the ECA (Ending Clergy Abuse) group in 2019. Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP
In 2002, the Boston Globe published a series of articles exposing the scale of child sexual abuse in the local Catholic church. It shone a spotlight – the title of a later movie based on the investigation – on the church’s dark shameful secrets.
Eleven years later, Francis became pope. Wave after wave of abuse revelations continued to crash at the Vatican’s doors amid mounting anger and revulsion among the faithful and beyond. The issue threatened to derail Francis’s papacy and dominate his trips abroad. He was slow to grasp the scale and systemic nature of the issue and apparently reluctant to take firm action to deal with abusers and those who covered up abuse.
Survivors of clergy sex abuse say Pope Francis' response to crisis was insufficient
FILE - Demonstrators with the Coalition of Catholics and Survivors hold posters of children who have allegedly been sexually abused by Catholic priests, across the street from where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are meeting in Dallas, Friday, June 14. 2002. Charlie Riedel AP
EXCLUSIVE: Survivor of notorious rapist priest speaks out for first time
WWL Louisiana/The Guardian
April 17, 2025
By David Hammer/Ramon Antonio Vargas
The clergy abuse survivor who helped prosecutors secure the only conviction against a notorious child rapist and retired Catholic priest in New Orleans is still hoping that authorities file criminal charges against his former high school principal and everyone else who enabled the clergyman.
“Everybody that had any part … needs to be held accountable. Period – period,” Neil Duhon, who was raped 50 years ago by Lawrence Hecker, said in an interview with WWL Louisiana and the Guardian, the first and only time he’s ever revealed his identity to the public.
Referring to the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the institution that employed and protected Hecker for decades and kept doing so even after the priest admitted he had preyed sexually on minors throughout his career, Duhon added: “I hope they get some type of criminal charge.
“You know, they are responsible for all of this.”
Once-secret records show how S.F. Archdiocese handled priests accused of child sex abuse
A panel that reviews abuse allegations against priests returned more than half of accused clergy to ministerial duties, including a priest who faced five complaints, documents show.
Margie O’Driscoll, who filed a lawsuit saying she was sexually abused during her senior year at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield in 1976, stands for a portrait in San Francisco on April 15, 2025. Yuri Avila/For the S.F. Chronicle
The San Francisco Chronicle
April 16, 2025
The archdiocese has long been one of the most opaque Catholic branches in the country. But the once-confidential Independent Review Board minutes it released provide an unprecedented window into the powerful committee, while raising questions about whether its oversight — designed as a measure to prevent abuse by priests — truly protected its youngest parishioners.
The church turned over the 175 pages of records on Tuesday after a federal bankruptcy judge ordered the release against the wishes of the archdiocese.
“As a Catholic, Easter is the celebration of light and today, reading these documents, you see darkness and evil,” said Margie O’Driscoll, a 64-year-old San Francisco resident who has sued the archdiocese over allegations she was sexually abused by her former teacher at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield. “Over and over again, you see the archdiocese protecting priests more than the children.”
Final ruling issued in fight between survivors of St. Anne's residential school and Canada over disclosure
Judge says Canada has met its obligation to survivors who have concluded the claims process
Theodore McCarrick, ex-cardinal disgraced in abuse scandal, dies at 94
"McCarrick was never held accountable for his crimes," the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a victims group, said in a statement after the former cardinal’s death. "While he was eventually removed from public ministry, defrocked, and stripped of his red hat, he never stood trial for the vast harm he inflicted on children, young adults, seminarians, and others under his power. … The McCarrick story is not just about one man. It is about the system that enabled him.”
Six cardinals accused of covering up sex abuse in Catholic Church
Six senior cardinals, including two considered strong contenders to be future popes, have been accused by campaigners of covering up sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.
A bombshell dossier of complaints compiled by groups representing survivors of clerical sex abuse has been handed to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state and number two to the Pope.
The allegations were made public on Thursday as it emerged that the 88-year-old Pope Francis, who was discharged from hospital on Sunday after five weeks of treatment for double pneumonia and other infections, is still having difficulty talking.
I Made It My Mission To Find The Priest Who Molested My Brother. Here's What Happened When I Finally Did.
"I learned that he’d be starting a new position at a school in a little farming community I knew well."
The author in her third-grade school photo/Courtesy Nancy Brier
HuffPost
March 27, 2025
By Nancy Brier
My fingers trembled when I dialed the phone. It was the early ’90s, back before texting or email. In fact, I’d just replaced my beige wall phone with a chunky wireless. Four rings in, I was about to hang up when my brother’s voice finally answered. I sputtered out what I needed to say: When I was a little girl, one of our family members sexually molested me. The abuse went on for years.
My therapist thought it would be healing for me to tell my family. She warned me that sometimes families can react in unpredictable ways. They might call me a liar, say that I’m crazy or sever the relationship. She told me that in her practice, she’d seen people written out of inheritances, banished from their homes and blamed for having been victims. I guess she just wanted me to be prepared.
On a wooden chair under a dim overhead light, I stared at the burn mark on my dining room table. I was 28 years old and struggling. I’d already told my two sisters about what happened, but opening up to the guys in my family was harder. After I gushed out my news, there was silence. At first, I wondered if we’d been disconnected, but I could feel my brother’s attention on the other end of the line. I could picture him taking in the secret I’d kept all my life. My fingers were white from clutching the phone, and I waited for him to say something.
“Just like me,” he said, finally. “Just like what Father Sean did to me.”
The phone fell from my grip, clattered on the hardwood floor. I picked it up, my breath gone.
“Oh,” I said, the sound barely coming out.
