Catholic Church sex scandals

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'Vindictive' Judge Delays Rape Trial of Priest, 93
Disgraced Priest, 93,
Pleads Guilty to Rape
UPDATED
Dec 3, 2024 6:27 PM CST

Disgraced Priest, 93, Pleads Guilty to Rape

New Orleans priest Lawrence Hecker faces life in prison

(Newser) - A disgraced 93-year-old New Orleans priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges involving the sexual assault of a teenage boy in 1975. Lawrence Hecker, who left the ministry in 2002, had been scheduled to stand trial Tuesday, the AP reports. Hecker entered his plea to aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature,...

LA Archbishop: 'I Am Sorry for Every One of These Incidents'

Archdiocese of Los Angeles agrees to pay whopping $880M to victims of clergy sex abuse

(Newser) - The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades, in what an attorney said was the largest single settlement with a Catholic archdiocese over child sex abuse. After the Wednesday announcement of the agreement in principle, Archbishop Jose H....

Pope Pressures Bishops to Quit Covering Up Abuse

After leaving Belgium, Francis sticks to stances on women's issues that drew criticism

(Newser) - Pope Francis wrapped up a troubled visit to Belgium on Sunday by doubling down on his traditional views on women and abortion and demanding that Catholic bishops stop covering up for predator priests—a scandal that has devastated the church's credibility around the globe. Francis revisited the thorny topics...

Belgium's King, PM Had Strong Words for Pope

'When something goes wrong we cannot accept cover-ups,' PM says of sex abuse scandals

(Newser) - Belgium's prime minister blasted Pope Francis for the Catholic Church's horrific legacy of clerical sex abuse and cover-ups, demanding "concrete steps" to come clean with the past and put victims' interests ahead those of the institution in a blistering welcome at the start of Francis' visit on...

Despite 'Spiritual Halo,' Nuns Are Part of Something Darker

Victims who are sexually abused by women of the cloth aren't often discussed in church sex scandals

(Newser) - On Wednesdays, the support group meets over Zoom. Members talk about their lives, religious families, and old parochial schools. But mostly, they're there to talk about the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Catholic nuns—and it's a topic that deserves more attention, they say. The...

Vatican Restricts Minnesota Archbishop

Investigation finds John Nienstedt didn't break church law but took 'imprudent' actions

(Newser) - A lengthy Vatican investigation into misconduct allegations against Archbishop John Nienstedt, former leader of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, concluded that he took "imprudent" actions but did not violate church law, the archdiocese announced Friday. However, the archdiocese said Nienstedt, who is still an archbishop, remains barred...

Confederate Statues Aren't the Only Ones Coming Down

Homage to late German cardinal comes down days after new sex-abuse allegations

(Newser) - Confederate statues aren't the only ones being taken down: A statue of a deceased German cardinal was removed from its perch outside Essen Cathedral in western Germany on Monday, reports the AP , days after allegations of sexual abuse decades ago became public. The accusations against Cardinal Franz Hengsbach,...

Ex-Cardinal Accused of Abuse Won't Stand Trial

Theodore McCarrick, 93, has dementia

(Newser) - The once-powerful Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick will not stand trial on charges he sexually assaulted a teenage boy decades ago, as a Massachusetts judge dismissed the case against the 93-year-old on Wednesday because both prosecutors and defense attorneys agree he suffers from dementia. McCarrick, the ex-archbishop of Washington, DC,...

State AG Releases Stunning Report on Church Sex Abuse

Report alleges 451 Catholic clergy in Illinois abused nearly 2K children from 1950 to 2019

(Newser) - In 2018, a grand jury report was released in Pennsylvania naming 300-plus "predator priests" in the state accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 children over a period of seven decades. Partly inspired by those revelations, then-Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan started a probe in her own state,...

Ex-Cardinal Charged With Sex Abuse in Wisconsin

Theodore McCarrick, 92, already faces abuse charge in Massachusetts

(Newser) - The defrocked Roman Catholic cardinal who became the face of the church's clergy sex abuse crisis has been charged in Wisconsin with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man more than 45 years ago, court records show. A criminal complaint filed Friday alleges that Theodore McCarrick, who was removed from the...

A Catholic First: Cardinal Admits Abusing Minor

78-year-old Jean-Pierre Ricard says he abused 14-year-old girl in 1980s, steps down

(Newser) - Jean-Pierre Ricard has become the first Catholic cardinal to publicly admit to abusing a minor, according to reports. The French cardinal said Monday that he "behaved in a reprehensible way with a young girl aged 14" as a priest in the archdiocese of Marseille in the 1980s and "...

After Telling School of Accused Priest on Payroll, a Giant Fine

New Orleans attorney Richard Trahant says he'll appeal the $400K payment to archdiocese

(Newser) - A lawyer who alerted a Catholic high school to past sexual misconduct by its chaplain has been fined $400,000 for violating confidentiality rules by speaking out. Attorney Richard Trahant says he'll appeal the decision handed down Tuesday, which gives him 30 days to pay the Archdiocese of New...

Pope: I Actually Was at Meeting on Priest Accused of Abuse

Benedict had originally said he hadn't attended, blames discrepancy on 'editing' mistake

(Newser) - Update: Pope Benedict XVI has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal, but there's been a shift in at least one story. Per the Catholic News Agency and CNN , the pontiff had originally told investigators he hadn't attended a January 1980 meeting of archdiocesan...

Report: French Catholic Church Showed 'Cruel Indifference'

Commission finds 330K children may have been sexually abused by clergy, laypeople since 1950

(Newser) - A new report slams the Catholic Church for "cruel indifference," with clergy in France accused of sexually abusing an estimated 216,000 children since 1950. Jean-Marc Sauve, head of the inquiry commissioned by the French Catholic Church, says most of the victims over the past seven decades were...

On Punishments for Church Sex Abuse, a 'Significant Rewrite'

Pope Francis signs off on first major update to penal sanctions since 1980s

(Newser) - A slew of new rules on how to handle sexual abuse within the Catholic Church has received the official green light from Pope Francis, updating a penal system that's been in place for 40 years. The Washington Post calls it "the most significant rewrite of canon law" since...

Vatican Report: John Paul II to Blame for McCarrick's Rise

Probe into disgraced cardinal lets Pope Francis off the hook, blames other bishops, cardinals, popes

(Newser) - A Vatican probe into ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has found that a series of bishops, cardinals, and even popes downplayed or dismissed reports he slept with seminarians, and determined that Pope Francis merely continued his predecessors' naive handling of the predator until a former altar boy alleged abuse. The Vatican took...

He Wrote Famous Hymns, Is Accused of Sex Misconduct

Claims against David Haas, 63, date back 4 decades

(Newser) - "There’s practically not a hymnal in existence that doesn’t include Haas songs," a Catholic theologian says of songs by composer David Haas. But the New York Times reports 10 of the 32 Roman Catholic archdioceses in the US have instructed their churches to no longer play...

Highest-Ranking Catholic Convicted of Sex Abuse Is a Free Man

Cardinal George Pell cleared of child sex abuse, released from prison Tuesday

(Newser) - Australia's highest court on Tuesday dismissed the convictions of the most senior Catholic found guilty of child sex crimes, the AP reports. Cardinal George Pell welcomed the news and said his trial had not been a referendum on the Catholic Church’s handling of the clergy sex abuse crisis....

AP Has Big Issues With Church Sex-Offender List

Over 900 accused clergy members are missing

(Newser) - Richard J. Poster served time for possessing child pornography, violated his probation by having contact with children, admitted masturbating near a church school, and in 2005 was put on a sex offender registry. And yet the former Catholic priest was only just this month added to a list of clergy...

Child Sex Convictions Upheld for Former Vatican No. 3

Pell to be stripped of Order of Australia honor

(Newser) - An Australian appeals court by a 2-1 ruling Wednesday upheld convictions against Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic to be found guilty of sexually abusing children . The Victoria state Court of Appeal rejected Pell's appeal of a unanimous jury verdict in December that he was guilty of molesting...

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