Why Does the Catholic Church Keep Failing on Sexual Abuse?

A few years after Seán O’Malley took over the Archdiocese of Boston in 2003, at the peak of the clergy sexual-abuse crisis in America, he led novenas of penance at nine of the city’s most affected parishes. At each church he visited, he lay facedown on the floor before the altar, begging for forgiveness. This is how O’Malley has spent his life in ministry: cleaning up after pedophile priests and their apologists, and serving as the Catholic Church’s public face of repentance and reform.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/sean-omalley-pope-francis-catholic-church-sex-abuse/582658/ 

On Priest Abuse

I just finished reading the Journal's report on the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Rosa in which Bishop Robert Vasa is partially quoted as saying "I know of no other way to bring light to this distressing moment in the church." ('Rid me of This Troublesome Priest," Feb. 7.) This moment. In chilling understatement, the bishop and even the North Coast Journal fail to follow the dots to the end.

https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/on-priest-abuse/Content?oid=13036040

Mexican bishops confirm 152 priests removed for abusing minors

The Mexican bishops’ conference has confirmed 152 priests have been removed from ministry for sexually abusing minors. In a statement released on Tuesday, the conference published the preliminary figure, while promising, “We will continue with the effort to have a complete diagnosis of cases of child sexual abuse in Mexico.”

https://www.thecatholicuniverse.com/mexican-bishops-confirm-152-priests-removed-for-abusing-minors-24059 

Belgium Report: 76% of Victims of Clergy Sex Abuse Were Males

A new report on clerical sex abuse in Belgium has revealed that 76 percent of priests’ victims were males, echoing patterns of chiefly homosexual abuse in other countries. Brussels Cardinal Jozef de Kesel presented the 400-page report on clergy sexual abuse Tuesday, which documents accusations of abuse from 1,054 alleged victims since 2010, three quarters of whom were male and 73 percent between the ages of 10 and 18 years.

https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2019/02/14/belgium-report-76-of-victims-of-clergy-sex-abuse-were-males/ 

First the Catholics and Now the Baptists

The Roman Catholic Church has been shaken by revelations of rampant sexual abuse among its clergy. Now the Southern Baptist Church is being shaken by a similar scandal. The Houston Chronicle has uncovered 380 church workers–pastors, but also youth ministers, Sunday School teachers, and other volunteers–who have been charged with sexual misconduct over the last 20 years. That list includes 250 who were charged with sex crimes, including rape, sexual assault, and child molestation.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2019/02/first-the-catholics-and-now-the-baptists/ 

New Jersey Priest Arrested on Child Sex Abuse Charges

A Roman Catholic priest in Northern New Jersey was arrested and charged this week with multiple counts of child sex abuse dating to the early 1990s, the state attorney general’s office said. It was the first criminal case brought by New Jersey’s Clergy Abuse Task Force, which was formed last year to investigate abuse allegations in the Catholic Church.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/nyregion/father-thomas-ganley-arrested.html 

Zmirak: U.S. Gov’t Should Cut Off Federal Funds to Catholic Charities After Sex Abuse Scandal

John Zmirak, senior editor at The Stream, called for the federal government to end contractual relationships with Catholic Church-affiliated nonprofits in response to revelations of senior Catholic officials’ involvement in sexual abuse and related cover-ups. He offered his remarks in a Friday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour.

https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2019/01/20/zmirak-u-s-govt-should-cut-off-federal-funds-to-catholic-charities-after-sex-abuse-scandal/ 

Montreal priest Brian Boucher pleads guilty to sexually abusing minor

Montreal-area Catholic priest Brian Boucher, who was found guilty earlier this month of sexually assaulting a youth, pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing another boy in the mid-1990s. Boucher, 56, pleaded guilty to two charges at the Montreal courthouse: sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching. The acts took place between 1995 and 1999, while he worked at St-John-Brébeuf parish in LaSalle.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-priest-brian-boucher-pleads-guilty-to-sexually-abusing-minor 

How bishops are being bullied to drop homosexuality from the clergy abuse debate

The fact that Pope Francis put pro-gay Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich in charge of next month’s Vatican summit of bishops on sexual abuse was a clue. The fact that the Pope has refused to talk about the homosexual connection to the abuse crisis, even though over 80% of clergy sexual abuse victims worldwide are males, is another indication of how things are gearing up for February.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/how-bishops-are-being-bullied-to-drop-homosexuality-from-the-clergy-abuse-d

Ending rule by the ‘McCarrick Doctrine’

It cannot be denied that a large number of Catholic bishops and their vicars lied, covered up, and abused their positions and faith. The sexual abuse and exploitation of children and young people were not only the result of the dereliction of duty of bishops in governing but in several cases obviously enabled by their own secret sins.

https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otn.cfm?id=1323 

First criminal case filed by new state task force on clergy abuse

The New Jersey attorney general’s clergy abuse task force has filed its first criminal case against a Roman Catholic priest who allegedly sexually assaulted a teenage girl in the 1990s. AA priest from Phillipsburg has been arrested and charged with multiple criminal counts in the sexual assault of a child who was between the ages of 14 and 17 when the abuse allegedly occurred. The arrest was made by members of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office assigned to the task force.

http://planetprinceton.com/2019/01/22/first-criminal-case-filed-by-new-state-task-force-on-clergy-abuse/ 

Religion German Church official calls out bishops who covered up sex abuse

Deploring and condemning abuse must be followed by actions, says secretary-general of the episcopal conference. Father Hans Langendörfer SJ (youtube.com) A senior official of the German bishops' conference has insisted that Catholic prelates who covered up clergy sex abuse must be publicly identified for the good of the Church and its future.

https://international.la-croix.com/news/german-church-official-calls-out-bishops-who-covered-up-sex-abuse/9290# 

Priests accused of abuse formerly pastored in Boone

The Maryland Province Jesuits and Diocese of Charlotte have said that two Catholic priests who pastored Boone’s St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country in the 1990s are “credibly” accused of sexually abusing minors. H. Cornell Bradley, who now is 80, is among a list of priests named last month by the Maryland Province Jesuits. Bradley had “multiple allegations of sexual abuse” against him in Ocean City, Md., and Washington, D.C., in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the province, a Roman Catholic order of 17,000 priests and brothers.

https://www.wataugademocrat.com/news/priests-accused-of-abuse-formerly-pastored-in-boone/article_e4836e43-7f6d-5559-9a9c-4f7e9e49f101.html 

Clergy Child Abuse Reporting Laws Uneven, Leave Loopholes

Even though more than half the states require clergy to report abuse, most do not require clergy members to disclose allegations made in private, under what is called “clergy-penitent privilege.” Virginia is the latest state to consider including clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse but there, too, legislation would exempt such private communications.

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/01/24/clergy-child-abuse-reporting-laws-uneven-leave-loopholes 

Accused Houston-area priest was allowed to celebrate Mass before abuse list released

A prominent Houston priest was allowed to perform Mass hours before the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston made public that he was under investigation for alleged child sexual abuse and would be removed from his post. The removal of Father John Keller at Prince of Peace Catholic Community Church in Houston came as a slew of alleged victims came forward with accusations against other priests not named in lists of "credibly accused" clergy released Thursday by 14 of the Catholic dioceses in Texas.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Prince-of-Peace-pastor-was-allowed-to-celebrate-13581760.php