SACRAMENTO — A statue of a Spanish missionary in downtown Sacramento has been toppled by demonstrators. The Sacramento Bee reports the statue of Father Junipero Serra in Capitol Park was brought down Saturday amid a protest focusing on the rights and historical struggle of indigenous people. The 18th century Roman Catholic priest...
NFL’s Saints Fight to Shield Emails in Catholic Abuse Crisis
NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Saints are going to court to keep the public from seeing hundreds of emails that allegedly show team executives doing public relations damage control for the area's Roman Catholic archdiocese to help it contain the fallout from a burgeoning sexual abuse crisis. Attorneys for...
Pennsylvania Dioceses Paid $84M to 564 Clergy Abuse Victims
Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses have paid nearly $84 million to 564 victims of sexual abuse, a tally that’s sure to grow substantially in the new year as compensation fund administrators work through a backlog of claims, according to an Associated Press review. Seven of the state’s eight dioceses launched victim...
Why Joe Biden Was Denied Communion at a Church
Former Vice President Joseph Biden, who is a Roman Catholic, recently stopped on the campaign trail to attend Sunday Mass at a church in Florence, South Carolina. But the pastor, Robert Morey, refused to give him communion. Morey said Biden’s support for legalized abortion contradicts the unity between “God, each...
Devotees Nailed to Crosses on Good Friday
SAN PEDRO CUTUD, Philippines — Several Roman Catholic devotees were nailed to wooden crosses in a gory Good Friday ritual in the Philippines, and others flogged themselves or took part in religious plays to reenact Jesus Christ's suffering. Four men and a woman, some wearing crowns of twigs, were escorted...
AP Exclusive: A Reckoning Underway in US Catholic Church
PHILADELPHIA — Over the past four months, Roman Catholic dioceses across the U.S. have released the names of more than 1,000 priests and others accused of sexually abusing children in an unprecedented public reckoning spurred at least in part by a shocking grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania, an Associated Press...
Church Sex Scandal: Abuse Victims Want a Full Reckoning
Six Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania joined the list this week of those around the U.S. that have been forced to face the ugly truth about child-molesting priests in their ranks. But in dozens of other dioceses, there has been no reckoning, leading victims to wonder if the church will...