The administrator of the elite Catholic school in Cancun, Mexico, used to take the girls out of class and send them to the chapel, where a priest from the Legion of Christ religious order would sexually abuse them.
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Ever since Benedict XVI announced he would become the first pope in 600 years to resign, Catholic theologians and canon lawyers warned of the confusion in having two popes living side by side in the Vatican, one reigning, the other retired but calling himself “emeritus pope” and still wearing the white cassock of the papacy.
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One day in May of 1970, an 11-year-old boy and his disabled sister were sitting on the curb outside a Chicago tavern, waiting for their mother to come out. When a priest with crinkly eyes and a ready smile happened by and offered the family a ride home, they could not have been happier.
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Pope Francis offered a Christmas message of hope Wednesday against darkness that cloaks conflicts and relationships in large parts of the world, from the Middle East to the Americas to Africa.
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The Vatican office responsible for processing clergy sex abuse complaints has seen a record 1,000 cases reported from around the world this year, including from countries it had not heard from before — suggesting that the worst may be yet to come in a crisis that has plagued the Catholic Church.
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Pope Francis has abolished the “pontifical secret” used in clergy sexual abuse cases, after mounting criticism that the high degree of confidentiality has been used to protect pedophiles, silence victims and keep law enforcement from investigating crimes.
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Pope Francis has declared that the Vatican Secret Archive isn’t so secret after all. Francis on Monday changed the name of the Holy See archive to remove what he said were “negative” connotations of having “secret” in its name.
Read morePope Francis named one of Italy’s leading anti-Mafia prosecutors as president of the Vatican’s criminal tribunal Thursday, just days after a new scandal erupted over alleged financial wrongdoing in the heart of the Holy See.
Read moreThe mystery of the 1983 disappearance of the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee took yet another twist Saturday following excavations this week at a Vatican City cemetery. The Vatican said it had discovered two sets of bones under a stone slab that will be formally opened next week.
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Amid pedophile clergy scandals, the Vatican has declared “unacceptable” any efforts by politicians or lawmakers to force priests to violate their sacred obligation to keep secret what faithful tell them in confession.
Read moreEmail correspondence shows disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, of Washington, D.C., was placed under Vatican restrictions in 2008 for sleeping with seminarians, but regularly flouted those travel rules with the apparent knowledge of Vatican officials under Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
Read moreThree brothers who were sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest and two other alleged victims filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday demanding the names of thousands of predators they say are known to the Vatican but have been held secret for decades.
Read moreThe Vatican has upheld its conviction of Guam’s ousted archbishop for sexually abusing minors and has added a further penalty on appeal that effectively prevents him from presenting himself as a bishop.
Read morePope Francis has issued sweeping new sex abuse legislation for the Vatican City State and Vatican diplomats that requires the immediate reporting of allegations to Vatican prosecutors, as he seeks to create a model policy for the Catholic Church.
Read moreThe founder and all-female editorial board of the Vatican’s women’s magazine have quit after what they say was a Vatican campaign to discredit them and put them “under the direct control of men,” that only increased after they denounced the sexual abuse of nuns by clergy.
Read morePope Francis has removed two cardinals from his informal cabinet after they were implicated in the Catholic Church’s sex abuse and cover-up scandal, shedding embarrassing advisers ahead of a high-stakes Vatican summit on abuse early next year.
Read moreThe Vatican has launched an investigation into a small Chilean religious order of nuns after some sisters denounced sexual abuse at the hands of priests and mistreatment by their superiors.
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The Vatican says Pope Francis is expected to meet with victims of sexual abuse during his weekend visit to Ireland and speak out about the problem.
Read moreThe Vatican expressed “shame and sorrow” Thursday over a scathing Pennsylvania grand jury report about clergy who raped and molested children in six dioceses in that state, calling the abuse “criminally and morally reprehensible” and saying Pope Francis wants to eradicate “this tragic horror.”
Read morePope Francis urged governments on Friday to make good on their commitments to curb global warming, warning that climate change, continued unsustainable development and rampant consumption threatens to turn the Earth into a vast pile of “rubble, deserts and refuse.”
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