Catholic Church sex scandals

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Scandal Threatens John Paul II's Sainthood

Questions swirl over late Pope's record on abuse

(Newser) - Questions swirled about John Paul II's legacy at a ceremony yesterday marking the 5th anniversary of his death. The inexplicable healing of a young French nun from Parkinson's disease had seemed like the miracle required for his sainthood. But, according to a Polish newspaper, there are now doubts the nun...

Minn. Lawyer Who Targeted Pope Has Won $60M in Settlements

Jeff Anderson wants to question Benedict under oath

(Newser) - Before he last week released documents showing that an office led by Pope Benedict XVI halted a trial against a priest accused of molesting some 200 deaf boys, Jeff Anderson had already filed thousands of lawsuits alleging sex abuse by priests and won more than $60 million for his clients....

Get Lost, Benedict, We Need a Woman for the Job

Pope is hopelessly tainted, and it's time for a nun to right the church

(Newser) - Maureen Dowd continues her rant on the scandal-ridden Catholic patriarchy for a second Sunday, calling for Pope Benedict to "go home to Bavaria," while the church gets itself a "nope"—"a nun who is pope." Dowd isn't buying claims that the "sin-crazed 'Rottweiler'...

Scandal Swirls as Pope Opens Holy Week

Vatican digs in, insists Benedict acted appropriately

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI has opened the church's solemn Holy Week amid increasing questions about his own handling of priest sex abuse cases. Benedict's procession entered St. Peter's Square today at the start of Palm Sunday Mass. The pontiff, in crimson and golden vestments, waved to the throngs of faithful waving...

Deaf Students Warned of Priest's Abuse for Decades

Victims' complaints ignored by nuns, priests, and police

(Newser) - The deaf students who were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a priest in Wisconsin began reporting the abuse as long ago as the 1950s. They were ignored by everyone they told—nuns, other priests, archbishops, and police, reports the New York Times . No serious action was ever...

Priest on Sex Abuse: 'I Went Too Far'

German blames lack of supervision, 'proximity to pupils'

(Newser) - As a wave of sex abuse threatens to engulf Pope Benedict's papacy, a German priest "granted leave" a month ago takes the issue head on: "I know that I had some contact with pupils where I went too far, and which I do not approve of today."...

Pope Hasn't Begun to Apologize for Irish Abuse
 Pope Hasn't Begun to 
 Apologize for Irish Abuse 
SINEAD O'CONNOR

Pope Hasn't Begun to Apologize for Irish Abuse

Now do you understand why she ripped up that picture in 1992?

(Newser) - “Almost 18 years ago, I tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on an episode of Saturday Night Live,” Sinead O’Connor writes. She explains that she wasn't anti-religion but had a deep problem with how the church treated Irish Catholics. Then, “people did not...

Benedict: Fire the Lawyers, Confess to the Cover-Up

Church must stop protecting itself and do the righteous thing

(Newser) - The Vatican hasn’t looked particularly holy in responding to its latest pedophilia scandal. “The church has acted almost entirely on the basis of this world’s imperatives and standards,” writes EJ Dionne Jr. of the Washington Post . It has worried about lawsuits, its image, and how to...

Vatican Denies Cover-Up in US Molestation Case

Says it's a deliberate attempt to smear pope

(Newser) - The Vatican says there was no cover-up in the church's handling of the case of a priest accused of molesting some 200 deaf boys in the United States and has denounced what it says is a campaign to smear the pope. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said today that there...

Pope Knew of US Deaf Boys' Sex Abuse, Did Nothing

Priest linked to hundreds of cases never disciplined

(Newser) - Pope Benedict knew of the suspected abuse of hundreds of deaf Wisconsin boys by a renegade priest yet the Vatican office he headed as cardinal halted a process to remove the man from the priesthood. A local archbishop wrote a letter to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1996 pleading that Father...

Priest, 82, Filmed Having Sex with Altar Boy

Sex scandals rocks Brazilian church

(Newser) - In the latest scandal to rock the Catholic church, a Brazilian priest has been removed from his post after a video of him having sex with a 19-year-old altar boy surfaced. Father Luiz Marques Barbosa, 82, was filmed with a hidden camera by a 21-year-old who alleges he was abused...

Cardinal: Maybe Celibacy's Not Such a Great Idea

Vatican 'needs to look into source of sex scandals'

(Newser) - The Catholic church needs to take a long hard look at its celibacy policy in the wake of its seemingly endless sex scandals, an influential cardinal says. Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, the archbishop of Vienna, wrote in his archdiocese magazine last week that the Vatican should carry out an "unflinching...

Jon Stewart Slams the Vatican
 Jon Stewart Slams the Vatican 

Jon Stewart Slams the Vatican

Catholic Church quick to punish sinners ... just not priests

(Newser) - Jon Stewart ’s latest victim: the Catholic Church. Stewart is unhappy about a few things, among them: the cover-up of a gay sex ring, the pope’s protection of a pedophile priest, and the suspension of two Catholic school students for having lesbian parents. The church is swift,...

German Priest in Sex Abuse Case Suspended

Peter Hullermann convicted in 1986, but continued to serve

(Newser) - When Pope Benedict was Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, he transferred Peter Hullermann to a different diocese in Germany after the priest was accused of sexually molesting young boys. Six years later, in 1986, Hullermann was convicted of sexual abuse but received a suspended sentence and continued in the priesthood—and working...

As Abuse Scandal Nears Pope, Vatican Fires Back

But sex-abuse cases 'growing every day' in Germany

(Newser) - A day after high-level Catholic officials admitted that "serious mistakes" were made in handling a sex abuse case in the German diocese where Pope Benedict XVI was then archbishop, the Vatican came out swinging in defense of the embattled pontiff. Benedict, as the Vatican's cardinal in charge of sex-abuse...

Pope's Exorcist: Satan Is in the Vatican

Priest links sex scandals, cardinals, bishops to devil

(Newser) - Sex scandals in the Catholic Church are continuing proof that the devil has infiltrated the Vatican, the Holy See's chief exorcist has revealed. Satanic manipulations have triggered Vatican power struggles and resulted in "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon,"...

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