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Yesterday, on the eve of Jerry Sandusky's latest court hearing, Courtney Brennan of Pittsburgh's WPXI-TV was taping a report in front of the Sanduskys' house. It starts off looking like your standard TV news story: An earnest Brennan ready to give an overview of neighbors' complaints to police about Ol' Jerry, the house framed in the background just so, when (expletives deleted).

When the Boston Globe exposed massive wrongdoing in the Boston Archdiocese in 2002, Catholics were understandably angry. And when more horror stories surfaced elsewhere, we were furious. But now our anger is turning on those who are distorting the truth about priestly sexual abuse. That some are exploiting this issue for ideological and financial profit seems plain. Every time a new wave of accusations surfaces in one diocese, not coincidentally we see a spike in accusations in other dioceses. What is not often reported is that the vast majority of new accusations extend back decades. For example, for the first...

MARKTL-AM-INN, Germany, April 13 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI's childhood home in Germany was vandalized Tuesday with graffiti that was quickly painted over, police said. Police in the southern German town of Marktl-am-Inn didn't release the exact words of the graffiti but said it referred to the current sex-abuse scandal plaguing the Roman Catholic Church, The Washington Times reported. "The wall over the entrance door of the Pope birth house had insulting contents written in blue," said a Bavarian police report, which the Times translated with the help of a computer program. "The writer obviously used a lacquer spray can...

Catholic League president: Church must start playing hardball against victimization New York, Aug. 30, 2005 (CNA) - Yesterday, William Donahue, president of the Catholic League for religious and civil rights called recent verbal attacks on Archbishop William Levada, and legal bullying in the diocese of Spokane, WA, “outrageous” and “no longer about” the alleged victims of the sexual abuse scandal. “The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church”, he said, “is no longer about the alleged victims—they have had their day in court—it is about the victimization of the Catholic Church. The time has come for the Catholic Church to...

Diocese to appeal court decision that parishes can be liquidated; claims breach of church/state separation Spokane, Aug. 30, 2005 (CNA) - Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Washington has announced that his diocese will appeal a federal court ruling which, on Friday, declared all parishes in the diocese assets which can be liquidated to pay for claims by alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests. Bishop Skylstad, who also holds the post of president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement released from Eastern Europe, where he is currently traveling, that"The court's decision has national consequences.” “Its...

Bankruptcy judge rules parish assets available to victims The Associated Press   SPOKANE, Wash. — A federal bankruptcy judge ruled today that all the parish churches, parochial schools and other property of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane can be liquidated to pay victims of sexual abuse by priests. The decision, expected to have ramifications for dioceses across the nation, was a defeat for Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, who had argued that he did not control individual parishes and thus they were not available to cover settlement costs. "It is not a violation of the First Amendment to apply federal...

(TUCSON, Arizona) -- A former Catholic seminarian is suing the Diocese of Tucson, its bishops, and Bishop Wilton Gregory, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops among other high-ranking American prelates. The suit alleges a pattern of racketeering activity exemplified by fraud and obstruction of justice. Attorney Ivan Abrams filed the case under provisions of federal RICO - Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations - statutes. The federal RICO law is a set of statutes that was initially directed at shutting down organized crime. Over the past two years, however, RICO has been used by some plaintiffs who argue...

Showdown in Dallas An open conflict between two bishops has helped to expose deeper problems in a troubled diocese. By Rod Dreher Jul. 02 (CWR) - Dallas: There is no question that this Texas city will figure prominently when historians write the story of the current Church sex scandal. Will it be as the place where the US bishops first attempted to deal together with the worst crisis in American Catholic history? Or will it be where a discredited and unpopular bishop set a new standard in grasping for power as his diocese continued a long slide under his leadership?...

Dr. Judith Reisman, Debunker of Kinsey Sex Research, Advises Catholic Church to Sue the Sex Experts for Medical Malpractice Thursday, December 26, 2002 By Karl Maurer, Vice President As the sex scandal in the Catholic Church continues to unfold, the most shocking aspect is not so much the abuse itself, but that molester priests were repeatedly given access to children, even after they were known to be child molesters. While the Bishops are in a large part responsible for the sex scandal in the church, there is a growing body of evidence pointing to an enormous fraud perpetrated on the...

<p>September 5, 2002 -- A Queens Catholic-school principal who sued a priest for sexual harassment charged yesterday church officials retaliated by putting her on indefinite unpaid leave.</p> <p>"I'm in shock that I was terminated," said Barbara Samide, principal of St. Elizabeth elementary school in Ozone Park. "This is direct retaliation for being a whistle-blower."</p>

Lay Group Calls on UN to Sanction Vatican Over Sex Abuse By Lawrence Morahan CNS Senior Staff Writer www.CNSNews.com - A Catholic activist group is calling on the United Nations to invoke the Convention on the Rights of the Child to denounce sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) announced it is launching a petition drive calling on Jacob Egbert Doek, chairman of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, to "immediately demand a report from the Holy See on both the magnitude of the problem and its plans to end pedophilia...

The sex abuse scandal is lapping awfully close to the feet of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony. The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that an accused molester of four boys lived in Mahony's residence at St. Vibiana's cathedral and that Mahony recently assigned the molester to serve at his new cathedral in downtown Los Angeles as an associate pastor. For how long had Mahony known his housemate and would-be associate pastor was a molester? For at least a decade. "It was one of those cases where I felt he had followed the treatment successfully, honestly, and was rehabilitated to the...

1. Catholics are hurting and bewildered due to the avalanche of sexual abuse cases which have surfaced over the past months. How do we account for such a crisis----doubtless complex---- and of such proportions? The fundamental answer to the question is the perennial reality of original and actual sin. Clerical sex abuse is a grave sin and far and away the most publicized sin today, but it is part of the much larger reality of sin still at work in the world and in each one of us. Why this particular sin seems so ubiquitous today is indeed a...

Tonight at 10:30 CST ABC: Our friends and colleagues at the New York Times brought us this story, thinking that it would be a story that we would want to do. I was about to write that it was a "good story," and while I'm sure you all would have understood what I meant, it just didn't seem right. But the story itself is extremely troubling. The choir from the American Boychoir School in Princeton, N.J. has sung for presidents and even a pope. One man came forward as a benefactor for the financially–challenged school. He apparently gave them enough...