Catholic Church abuses
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE - Pope Benedict XVI said he was "deeply ashamed" of the clergy sexual abuse scandal that stained the US Catholic Church and pledged to work to make sure pedophiles do not become priests. (AP)
Pope 'deeply ashamed' of sex scanda
US trip is 'not a political event'
Purge sex abuse, Pope tells bishops
Pope sanctions priest in sexual abuse case
OTTAWA - A former Windsor priest arrested in the Dominican Republic and accused of sexually abusing teenage boys in Haiti will be tried in Ontario, a spokeswoman for the Ontario Provincial Police confirmed. John Duarte, 44, is currently being held in custody in the DR awaiting extradition to Canada. (CBC) MORE: Arrest devastates local Catholics
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict has said he is sorry for the physical and sexual abuse and "deplorable" conduct at Catholic church-run Canadian residential schools. (CTV) MORE: Pope's comments get mixed reception
WASHINGTON - The number of new claims of sexual abuse made against US Roman Catholic priests rose by 16% to more than 800 last year, a Church report says. It says the Church paid $436M in 2008 for abuse cases. (BBC) REPORT: 2008 annual report protection of children and young people .pdf.
VATICAN CITY - Candidates for the Catholic priesthood should undergo psychological tests to screen out heterosexuals unable to control their sexual urges and those with strong homosexual tendencies, the Vatican said Thursday. (Reuters) MORE: Vatican issues new psych screening to weed out pedophiles
San Diego abuse claims settled
SAN DIEGO - The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego reached a $198.1 million agreement with 144 childhood sexual abuse victims Friday morning. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
PEMBROKE - Monsignor Robert Borne, 60, was charged by the OPP, Renfrew County Crime Unit, for incidents alleged to have occurred between 1977 and 1995. (Sun Media)
DUBLIN - The Pope shares the "outrage, betrayal and shame" felt by Irish people over a report that said clerical child abuse was covered-up, the Vatican has said. (BBC)
Investigation into Archdiocese of Dublin
Report handed to Irish government
Ireland unveils report on Catholic child abuse
Church turned blind eye to abuse
Priests abused hundreds of Irish kids
Catholic body reveals 150 sexual abuse claims in England and Wales
SYDNEY - Pope Benedict on Saturday apologised directly for the first time for sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, but victims groups in Australia said they wanted action and not words. (Reuters)
Text of Pope's apology for abuse in Australia
Pope sorry for priests' sex abuse
ST. GEORGE - A Roman Catholic diocese has made its final payments to men who were sexually abused as children by a priest convicted of the crimes almost two decades ago. (CBC)
LONDON, Ont. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of London has agreed to pay more than $2M to Lou Ann Soontiens of Chatham, for the long-time sexual abuse she suffered from her priest while she was a child. (Toronto Star)
Several reports written by senior members of women’s religious orders and by an American priest assert that sexual abuse of nuns by priests, including rape, is a serious problem, especially in Africa and other parts of the developing world. (NCR)
Judge OKs sex abuse lawsuit against Vatican
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Sex abuse victims can pursue damages from the Vatican in a lawsuit alleging top church officials failed to report known or suspected cases of child abuse, a federal judge ruled. (AP)
Over 1,000 sex cases filed in '04, US Bishops say
Nearly 1,100 credible accusations of child sexual abuse - mostly from incidents decades ago - were lodged against Catholic clergymen last year, according to a report released Friday by the U.S. bishops. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Alleged abuse victims settle with Chicago Archdiocese
CHICAGO - The Chicago Archdiocese agreed to pay $8 million to 15 people who say they were molested by priests over the past five decades. Individual settlements will range from $200,000 to $1.7 million, according to attorney Jeffrey R. Anderson, whose firm worked out the agreement with the archdiocese. (USA Today)
4% of priest serving over last 50 years accused of abuse
WASHINGTON - About 4 percent of U.S. priests ministering from 1950 to 2002 were accused of sex abuse with a minor, according to the first comprehensive national study of the issue. (CNS)
4,450 priests accused of abusing children since 1950
More than 80% of victims since 1950 were male
Archdiocese turns over records
PORTLAND - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland has turned over 97 boxes of records on priests accused of molesting children after promising last November to provide the documents to insurance companies seeking to reduce potential settlement costs. (KGW-TV13)
Did the Archdiocese declare bankruptcy to avoid or delay clergy abuse suits Victims cry foul over bankruptcy Levada's Oregon history surfaces
Accused priests took in minors
Buried deep in the thousands of sexual abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests lies a startling, little-known fact: Dozens of clerics accused of molesting minors lived with children, often serving as legal parents or guardians to boys who called their rectories home. (Post Intelligencer) With abuse came theft from church Spokane diocese seeks bankruptcy to shield assets from abuse suits Seattle P-I Special: No Safe Haven
SYDNEY - A search warrant document says Ottawa police found a folder on Bishop Raymond Lahey's laptop computer containing 964 files and 33 videos, with many showing what police believe are young males involved in sexual acts. Nova Scotia RCMP used the information to apply for a search warrant for Lahey's former residence in Sydney. (CBC)
Warrants detail images on bishop's computer
Police over looked Bishop's porn
LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of people who claim they were abused by clergy affiliated with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles can expect to be paid more than $1 million each in a $660 million settlement of their lawsuits. The deal, by far the largest settlement in the Church’s sexual abuse scandal, was reached yesterday, said Ray Boucher, a lawyer representing the lead plaintiff, and pushes the amount paid out in compensation for abuse since 1950 to more than $2 billion. (Times Online)
Cardinal under federal investigation
Catholic sex-abuse report finds mixed results
List of dioceses not complying
Battle over Archdiocese waged out of public eye
800 sue Catholic Church for sex abuse
Oakland Church facing Mage-suit
At least 24 released since court ruling on Calif. molestation law
Lawyer says asset transfer is illegal
Record settlement in Calif. church abuse case
LA Archdiocese ordered to provide sensitive documents in sex cases
The new charges against Rev. Bernard Prince, 71, stem from alleged attacks on five young males in the 1960s and 1970s. It brings the number of alleged victims to 12 and the charges against the priest from the Pembroke diocese to 31. (Ottawa Citizen)
Church knew of sex-abuse allegations years ago, accuser claims
Catholics split on effects of banning gays from priesthood
A new Vatican decree against gays in the priesthood has brought mixed reactions from U.S. Roman Catholic observers, with some seeing notable benefits and others predicting morale problems and a worsening clergy shortage. (Newsobserver)
Pope 'obstructed' sex abuse inquiry
Paedophiles 'turning Christian to target children
Silenced priest warns of gay crisis
Punishing priests could take years
About a dozen Iowa priests, most in their 70s and 80s, are among the hundreds that U.S. Catholic bishops are recommending for removal from the clergy. Because of that flood of recommendations, the Vatican is telling dioceses that it could be years before it rules on the cases. (Des Moines Register)
Self-preservation trumps mission in today's church
So Several Toledo parishes didn't tell their members in church bulletins about credible charges of child sexual abuse against the Rev. Bernard Kokocinski. American Catholicism had to be sued into Good Shepherd behavior, caring for its flock more than its minions. Many of the victims were doubly victimized. ( Toledo Blade)
1,000 Boston Church abuse victims
BOSTON - Clergy members and others in the Boston Archdiocese likely sexually abused more than 1,000 people over a period of six decades, Massachusetts' attorney general said Wednesday, calling the scandal so massive it "borders on the unbelievable." (CBS News)
RELATED: Sex abuse lawsuit pursues diocese, not priests W Mifflin case to test church conspiracy allegation
Sex crimes cover-up by Vatican
For decades, priests in this country abused children in parish after parish while their superiors covered it all up. Now it turns out the orders for this cover up were written in Rome at the highest levels of the Vatican. CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales has uncovered a church document kept secret for 40 years. (CBS News) Links to the original Latin version and an unofficial English translation provided to CBS News are available.