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Fonda said she knew immediately that she had made a mistake and has apologized repeatedly, both privately and publicly. She told OWN program “Oprah’s Master Class” that the event happened on the last day of her visit. She was tired, she said, and didn’t want to attend.

Union-Tribune Editorial Intolerant bishop Denial of funeral contradicts human dignity UNION-TRIBUNE March 19, 2005 Whatever happened to the age-old Christian precept, "Hate the sin and love the sinner."? San Diego Bishop Robert Brom apparently rejects this maxim of charity and tolerance. His highly rare decision to deny a Catholic burial to a gay businessman who owned a gay-oriented nightclub sends a message that is the sheer antithesis of charity and tolerance. To the bishop, a Catholic funeral for John McCusker, who died Sunday of congestive heart failure, would be a "public scandal" because the business he owned, Club Montage, was...

The founding chairman of a panel formed by San Francisco's Roman Catholic Archdiocese to look into allegations of priestly child abuse has resigned from the board, accusing church leaders of "deception, manipulation and control'' for refusing to release the investigation's results. James Jenkins, one of six members of the Independent Review Board and its chairman until last December, said Archbishop William Levada has blocked the release of the panel's findings on sexual-abuse allegations involving 40 priests. At least nine of those priests have agreed to refrain from "public ministry," the archdiocese said Thursday without identifying them. "There has been no...

In a recent Viewpoints column, Rod Dreher asked why Catholic laypersons aren't doing more to fight the sex-abuse crisis inside the church. Here's what our Catholic family has done. We recently launched a Web site – www.VictimPower.org – that makes it possible for victims of abuse or harassment to remain anonymous while communicating back and forth with authorities. VictimPower enables crime victims to create a totally Safe Place – a private account on the Web site that only the victim can access, like a post office box. From the Safe Place, the victim can report what happened and ask VictimPower...

A state appeals court delivered a stinging setback to alleged victims of clergy abuse by ruling that 17 adults who said they were molested by priests as children waited too long to sue. A three-judge panel of the Superior Court said Monday that even if officials of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia were guilty of "inexcusable conduct," they were protected by Pennsylvania's strict statute of limitations, which generally requires lawsuits in such cases to be filed within two years. One of the cases dates back to 1957, and the most recent alleges abuse in 1983. The court rejected the...

Attorneys for both sides in molestation dispute will meet for mediation in 33 civil lawsuits. Lawyers for the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento and attorneys representing 33 people who've claimed clergy sexual abuse begin court-ordered mediation today. Citing a significant gap in insurance coverage, diocesan officials say some of the money to pay for the settlements might have to come from other programs. -snip- George would not disclose the amount he will seek on behalf of his clients. "All I can say is it will be substantial," he said. He added that plaintiffs should not be used as "scapegoats" for diocesan...

A Pennsylvania priest who lived at a Catholic church in West Orange in December and January was charged yesterday with possession of child pornography in Monroe County, Pa. The Rev. Virgil Bradley Tetherow, 40, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton, Pa., allegedly downloaded images of child pornography onto a computer used by a secretary at the St. Ann's Catholic Church rectory in Tobyhanna, Pa., while visiting there in January, authorities said. Tetherow, who lived at St. Ann's for most of 2004, admitted to the allegation, according to detective Kenneth Lanning of the Pocono Mountain Regional Police in an affidavit...

"[Satan] will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the [Catholic] Church. . . . It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content." --Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, 1948 The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a trident nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust. This masquerade has helped the Devil convince men that he does not exist. When no man recognizes, the more power he exercises....

The National Review Board of the United States Council of Catholic Bishops authorized in 2003 the publication of “The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States: A Research Study Conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.” On Page 28, in chapter 2.3, the study included a graph showing the number of incidents of pedophilia (including ephibophilia) and the number of priests involved in such cases in each year, from 1950 through 2002. The results are strongly contradictory to many of the false notions perpetuated by...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Roman Catholic leaders said Friday they received 1,092 new abuse claims against American priests and deacons last year, even after they had already paid more than $800 million in settlements during the long-running crisis over predatory clergy. Bishops said, however, that the flood of fresh allegations was not a sign abuse was rampant in parishes today. Most of the alleged incidents occurred decades ago and nearly three-quarters of the 756 accused clerics had died, been defrocked or been removed from public ministry before the claims were made in 2004, church leaders said. Still, the financial fallout continues....

Greece's Orthodox church, buffeted by sex and corruption scandals, met in emergency session on Friday amid lurid claims that have included one newspaper publishing photographs of a 91-year-old bishop naked in bed with a nubile young woman. Scrambling to resolve the worst crisis in the church's modern history, the embattled spiritual leader, Archbishop Christodoulos, convened the rare meeting as allegations of skulduggery, sexual improprieties, trial rigging, drug and antiquities smuggling engulfed the institution. "I humbly ask for forgiveness from the people and the clerics who, for the most, honour... the cassock they wear," he said addressing the 102-member Holy Synod,...

A whistleblower Catholic priest who says his bishop is persecuting him because of his activism against homosexuals in the priesthood appeared yesterday in front of an ecclesiastical court near Catholic University. The Rev. James Haley, 48, a priest in the Diocese of Arlington, appeared before a panel of judges and canon lawyers for a final hearing in a case brought against him by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde. The case has lasted more than three years.

For Toledo police, it was a rare assignment: Search an abandoned house on the edge of a cornfield in western Lucas County where people reportedly took part in ritual abuse ceremonies. The detectives combed the bedrooms, kitchen, and even the dark basement for evidence of cult gatherings. The search of the decrepit, wood structure last year was a sign the investigation of the Rev. Gerald Robinson was moving beyond a murder case.

The leader of a Catholic watchdog group announced today that the formation of a clergy misconduct review board, while a good idea, would merit “no credibility” if it failed to include his organization on its committee. Stephen G. Brady, president of the Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc. (RCF) cited RCF’s investigation of former Springfield, IL Bishop Daniel Ryan in his organization’s ability to bring truth to the investigation. “RCF has been the only organization or individual with credibility in investigating Ryan and the clergy of this diocese since 1995,” Brady stated. “While the diocese repeatedly denied allegations against Ryan and belittled...

Hundreds of sexual abuse claims targeting the Roman Catholic Church in California have converged into one of the most complex civil litigation cases the state's judicial system has ever faced. More than 850 alleged victims are suing dioceses throughout the state, with millions of dollars in potential settlements at stake in a legal battle that involves more than 300 attorneys and dozens of church insurers. The scope is so vast that the lawsuits have been lumped geographically into three consolidated cases, known simply as Clergy I, Clergy II and Clergy III. After nearly two years, the pace of the complicated...

An Indiana priest who has been accused of sexual misconduct with a minor at an Orlando Catholic church more than a decade ago was also an associate pastor at two other parishes in Central Florida, Orlando diocese officials confirmed Monday. A letter from Orlando Bishop Thomas Wenski was sent to St. Peter's Catholic Church in DeLand and Holy Family Catholic Church in Orlando, informing them of the allegations against the Rev. Richard Emerson, 52. Wenski said if anyone knew of other incidents, they should come forward, and he asked for prayers for those involved, according to the letter. On Sunday,...

Vatican Revisits Abuse Charges Accused Priest Is Close To The Pope January 3, 2005 By GERALD RENNER The Vatican has reopened an investigation into charges first reported nearly eight years ago that a powerful Mexican priest close to the pope sexually abused seminarians. The allegations focus on the actions of the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, now 84 and based in Rome. He leads a religious order known as the Legionaries of Christ, which claims 600 priests in 18 countries. Its U.S. headquarters is in Orange and it has a seminary in Cheshire. The allegations surfaced in a Courant report in...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Prosecutors formally dropped an accuser from the criminal case against defrocked priest Paul Shanley (search), leaving just one alleged victim to testify in the trial that began Tuesday for one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal.

This has been a pretty bad week for the Roman Catholic Church as two more priests charged with sex abuse crimes and child rape were convicted. We Catholics are used to the drill by now. They walk in with their hands at their sides and they walk out in handcuffs. We’re used to the muffled weeping of the people in the cheap seats. We’re used to the victim’s gut-wrenching sobs on the stand. The priestly “perp walk” is just another day at the office. Trying to put the pieces together of the worst scandal in the history of the modern...

This has been a pretty bad week for the Roman Catholic Church as two more priests charged with sex abuse crimes and child rape were convicted. We Catholics are used to the drill by now. They walk in with their hands at their sides and they walk out in handcuffs. We’re used to the muffled weeping of the people in the cheap seats. We’re used to the victim’s gut-wrenching sobs on the stand. The priestly “perp walk” is just another day at the office. Trying to put the pieces together of the worst scandal in the history of the modern...