After the survey for this study was conducted, the Vatican issued new guidelines on abuse, which makes it mandatory for all clerics and members of religious orders to report cases of clerical abuse to Church authorities, including when committed by bishops or cardinals.
The centerpiece of the bishops’ agenda will be four action items dealing with the investigation of abuse claims against bishops themselves or accusations they have been negligent in handling or covering up cases of wayward priests and other church workers.
When the U.S. Catholic bishops gather in Baltimore next week, the theme of their three-day meeting could largely be summed up as “unfinished business.”
In the thick of the clergy sex abuse crisis, thousands of American Catholics descended on the nation’s capitol in protest of abortion where Archbishop Joseph Naumann reminded them that the abuse of minors is antithetical to the Church’s pro-life witness.
On what was expected to be a climatic close to the U.S. bishops’ gathering on Wednesday, the much-watched meeting ended without any immediate action on the Church’s response to clerical sexual abuse.
At the start of the U.S. bishops’ fall meeting on Monday, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the bishops conference, announced that the Vatican has requested a delay on such measures until after a February Vatican summit on the scandal.
Texas may be known as a state of “Lone Rangers,” but for Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, he’s hoping the V Encuentro, taking place in his diocese this week, will be a chance to shed rugged individualism in the American Catholic Church for an embrace of a larger community.
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, and has instructed Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore to conduct an investigation into allegations that Bishop Bransfield sexually harassed adults.
Following a private audience with Pope Francis this morning in Vatican City, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued the following statement regarding the recent moral crisis in the American Catholic Church.
Cardinal Blase Cupich offered a powerful admission that Church leaders “cannot pretend to teach” on matters such as the family and love without acknowledging the scandal of clerical sex abuse, which looms ever larger over the global Catholic Church at the moment.
