Even after months of anticipation and preparation, this Editorial Board finds itself shocked, horrified and sickened by a Pennsylvania grand jury report released Aug. 14 outlining decades of child sexual abuse at the hands of more than 300 “predator priests” and its
The Catholic Church in Pennsylvania conducted a decades-long “systematic” and “sophisticated” cover-up to protect alleged predator-priests, a state grand jury concluded, following a nearly two-year investigation into how local Church officials handled child sex-abuse allegations. In announcing the grand jury’s findings, which
Recently during one of my daily radio programs, I invited listeners to call in with their questions and concerns regarding the current scandals facing the Catholic Church. On the air with me that day to offer advice, perspective and Catholic direction was
Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, D.C., from the College of Cardinals, the Vatican announced on July 28. The rare step came over a month after the revelation that Pope Francis had removed now-Archbishop
Somebody asked me how the news about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick hit me. When I first heard it, my mind raced through the many years that I have known the cardinal. He was unfailingly gracious, generous, considerate and proper in every respect. I
As further revelations emerge in the case of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual abuse, not only of a minor but allegedly of numerous young seminarians and even priests subordinate to him, the Church in the United States once again has been shaken to
It’s been more than 16 years since the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the United States erupted, yet the Church continues to reel from the brutal consequences of this contemptible cancer. This time, it took down someone at the top. Cardinal Theodore
In another blow to the U.S. Church, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick was suspended June 20 from active ministry by the Holy See following a substantiated and credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. The retired archbishop of Washington, who previously served in dioceses
For once, Catholics did not make the headlines when it came to religious leaders and sexual impropriety. Recently, that distinction went to Southern Baptists, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. (It is estimated that 100 million persons are Baptists worldwide, more than 15
When all 34 bishops of Chile offered their resignations to Pope Francis on May 18, following a three-day meeting to discuss the clerical sexual abuse crisis in their country, observers in the United States were cautiously optimistic that the event marked a