Free Republic

For eight decades, leaders of a community of Catholic priests and brothers spanning 10 U.S. states acted inadequately in responding to sex abuse allegations and prioritized protecting accused abusers over their victims, concludes an audit released by the group Tuesday. The report, released by a province of Franciscan priests known as Capuchins, could raise questions of how communities of religious, which are not under direct control of bishops, are handling abuse allegations. It also addresses themes many critics of the U.S. church's response to sex abuse have raised since the issue made national headlines in 2002. The report says that...

Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki Archbishop of Milwaukee Click here to read this blog in Spanish. On April 3rd, I informed you of my decision to authorize the release of documents related to diocesan priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. These documents are scheduled to be posted to the archdiocesan website next week and I’m sure they will generate many stories in the news. We have worked with the attorneys for abuse survivors who identified almost 6,000 pages of documents they believe should be made public and that best demonstrate how the archdiocese handled allegations...

The Vatican has finally acceded to demands for a formal inquiry into Britain's most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who resigned from the diocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh in February following allegations of sexual misconduct. An apostolic visitation, a high-level inspection in which the "visitator" is given authority directly by the pope, will take place in the diocese, which has been accused of having had a "gay mafia" during the cardinal's tenure. News of the apostolic visitation came via the papal nuncio, Antonio Mennini, in a meeting with one of the complainants, a former priest known as "Lenny"...

MILWAUKEE (AP) — As more victims of clergy sex abuse came forward, then-Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan oversaw a plan to pay some abusers to leave the priesthood after writing to Vatican officials with increasing frustration and concern, warning them about the potential for scandal if they did not defrock problem priests, according to documents released Monday. Dolan’s correspondence with Vatican officials and priests accused of sexual abuse was included in about 6,000 pages of documents the Archdiocese of Milwaukee released Monday as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court with clergy sex abuse victims suing it for fraud....

The Philadelphia archdiocese has revealed that it faces $350 million in long-term debt, aggravated by annual budget deficits. Releasing audited financial statements for the first time, the archdiocese showed a $39.2 million deficit for the fiscal year ending in June 2012. Although that year’s financial reports included some special expenses, such as the costs of sex-abuse litigation, even without those expenses the budget showed a deficit of more than $17 million. The deficit for the most recent fiscal year was $6 million, reported Timothy O’Shaugnessy, who was appointed last year as the top financial officer for the archdiocese. The next...