One survivor said a priest forced her to have abortions after raping her. The pope said he has come up with 21 "reflection points" designed to address the crisis.
Theodore McCarrick rose to power as a cardinal and archbishop of Washington, D.C. He became the most senior Catholic Church official in modern times to lose clerical status.
In his new book, soon to be a feature film, Andrew McCarten examines Popes Francis and Benedict XVI — and how having two living popes, for the first time in 600 years, has weakened the papacy.
The Catholic Church has been roiled by revelations about clergy abuse in dioceses across the country in 2018. It began with a Pennsylvania grand jury report in August that detailed decades of abuse.
Priests who sexually abuse children are like Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus Christ, Pope Francis told a gathering of cardinals on Friday.
A preliminary investigation by the state's attorney general revealed the Illinois Catholic Church withheld the names of at least 500 accused priests from the public.
Javier Errázuriz had been accused of ignoring sexual abuse in Chile. George Pell has reportedly been found guilty of sexually assaulting children in Australia.
Guam's archdiocese is facing claims from nearly 200 alleged survivors. "Bankruptcy is the method to deliver the greatest measure of justice to the greatest number of victims," said a Church lawyer.
Politically conservative Catholics criticize Francis for being pro-migrant, anti-capitalist and less rigid in doctrine than predecessors. The cleric sex abuse scandals have emboldened these critics.
The list, which includes allegations dating back as far as 1948 and as recently as 1996, was released days after Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop Cardinal Donald Wuerl.
"No one in our city should live in fear," said Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh. The Catholic archdiocese program is modeled on one in Dallas, which aims to alleviate immigrants' fears of police stops.
Six of 10 U.S. Catholics say Pope Francis is doing only a "fair" or even a "poor" job handling the clergy abuse crisis. He is now only as popular as his predecessor, Pope Benedict.
Karadima has been the face of the church's sex abuse scandal in Chile. In 2011, a Vatican tribunal found him guilty of sexually abusing dozens of minors.
The study found that 5 percent of priests in the country's dioceses had been accused of abuse. Germany's justice minister said the study was "shocking and probably just the tip of the iceberg."
As Pope Francis grapples with a growing scandal, an accused bishop has resigned in West Virginia and a new study has emerged documenting the scale of clerical abuse in Germany.
The attorneys general for both states have launched active investigations into abuse allegations. Last month, a grand jury report from Pennsylvania detailed abuse by more than 300 Catholic priests.
As the pope departed for Rome Sunday night, his visit to Ireland only seemed to reinforce the decline of Roman Catholic authority in a country that was once synonymous with the faith.
In an 11-page letter, an ex-Vatican diplomat calls for Pope Francis to resign, alleging he knew about former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's abuses for years.
Pope Francis said the failure to address abuse remains "a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community." His visit comes at a time when the church's influence is greatly diminished.
In the wake of the shocking revelations detailed in the Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy abuse, Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis has voluntarily opened church files for scrutiny.
The pope is under intense pressure to enact concrete measures to ensure accountability for church officials who ignored or covered up sexual abuse by clergy.
After days of silence and a barrage of criticism for failing to address the most recent priest sex abuse scandal, the Vatican speaks: "The Holy See condemns unequivocally the sexual abuse of minors."
Accused predators have been named. Confidentiality agreements with abuse survivors have been waived. And soon Pennsylvania courts will release a redacted report on more than 300 "predator priests."
It's a shift for the church, which used to consider the death penalty an "acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good" in response to certain crimes.
