News Story of the Day

Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph to Pay for Failure to Report Abuse

By Julie Bosman

June 30, 2014

CHICAGO — A Roman Catholic diocese in Missouri has been ordered to pay $1.1 million to victims of sexual abuse for breaking its promises on improving the way it deals with abuse cases.


Catholic archbishop defrocked by Vatican for sexually abusing teenage boys

By Nick Squires

June 27, 2014

A Catholic archbishop and former Holy See ambassador has been defrocked after being convicted of sexually abusing teenage boys, making him the most senior Vatican figure to be punished for such a crime.


Child abuse victims stung by Albany inaction

By Shant Shahrigian

June 25, 2014

Horace Mann School graduate Joseph Cumming says it took him 34 years to fully realize his treatment at the hands of his music teacher Johannes Somary was sexual abuse. But by then, even if he had wanted to, it was far too late for him to take legal action. New York’s criminal and civil statute of limitations for sexual abuse of minors is five years after the victim turns 18.


SNAP hopes priest case encourages other victims

By Bob Priddy 

June 23, 2014

A support organization for people abused by priests hopes resolution of an abuse case in Boonville last week encourages more people who’ve been harboring a secret to step forward.


Rape Victims At Fundamentalist Christian College Say They Were Told To Repent For Their Sins

By Tara Culp-Ressler

June 18, 2014

The students who attend Bob Jones University, one of the most conservative Christian colleges in the country, say that they’re often traumatized after seeking counseling from school administrators on the issue of sexual assault. According to an Al Jazeera investigation, Bob Jones staff members have responded to allegations of rape by telling rape victims they should repent for their sins.


Bill would extend statute of limitations for filing child sex abuse lawsuits

By the Associated Press

June 18, 2014

BOSTON — The Massachusetts House has approved a bill to extend by more than 30 years the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sex abuse to file lawsuits against their alleged attackers or the institutions that employed them.


Sex abuse legislation was slow in arriving

By Ember Reichgott Junge

June 16, 2014

It has been heart-wrenching to read, over many months, disclosure after disclosure of Catholic priests credibly accused of committing child sexual abuse, and of those who protected them. It is stunning to hear church official after church official declare an inability to “remember” the details.


Buenos Aires victims urge Pope Francis to focus on sexual abuse in his home city

Pope Francis has promised not to tolerate more sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Argentine victims wish the former Buenos Aires archbishop had taken that stance years ago.


Protestors say Southern Baptists not taking clergy sex abuse seriously

By Bob Allen

June 12, 2014

The mother of a child sex abuse victim who is suing a Maryland ministry with ties to leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention said June 11 that a “good-old-boy” network among evangelical preachers is just as effective in covering up clergy predators as the Catholic hierarchy.


Editorial: Archbishop Carlson has some troubling memory lapses

By St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board

June 11, 2014

“And Pilate asked him, ‘Art thou the King of the Jews?’ And he answering said unto him, ‘I can’t remember.’ ”

Of course that’s not what the second verse of the 15th chapter of Mark’s gospel actually says. Jesus, on trial for his life before Pontius Pilate, replies, “Thou sayest it.”


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