ABUSE TRACKER

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, on Friday, signed a controversial state law that requires priests to report child abuse to authorities even if they learn of it during the sacrament of confession.

The measure, introduced in the state legislature earlier this year, adds clergy to the list of mandatory abuse reporters in the state, but doesn’t include an exemption for information learned in the confessional.

A 2023 version of the proposal had offered an exemption for abuse allegations learned “solely as a result of a confession.” The latest bill does not contain such a carve-out, and in fact explicitly notes that clergy do not qualify for a “privileged communication” exemption.

Ferguson told reporters that as a Catholic, he was “very familiar” with the sacrament of confession. “[I] felt this was important legislation,” he said on Friday.

Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly, meanwhile,  View Cache

Nuns sexually assaulted by priests are one of the last Catholic taboos, but with reports of abuse rising, it is a scandal that will be difficult for the future pope to ignore.

“In the past, the nuns suffered a lot and couldn’t talk about it to anyone; it was like a secret,” Sister Cristina Schorck told AFP, walking through St Peter’s Square with her parents.

The 41-year-old Brazilian, who works with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Rome, said Pope Francis, who died last month, opened “a first door” for women to speak out.

After an unprecedented summit at the Vatican on clerical sexual violence in 2019, a series of measures were taken, including lifting the pontifical secret on abuse and an obligation for people to report cases to their superiors.

“It’s both still a taboo and something that has progressed” because “it’s never been talked about as…

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The death of Pope Francis, after a very public diminishment, closes a signal chapter in Catholic history with absolutely no certainty about who or what comes next. Rather than reflexively corralling the cardinals into a Conclave to elect his successor, I propose a wholesale institutional reset to maximize the Roman Catholic Church’s usefulness. 

Francis’ agenda to end war, save the planet, support migrants, and eliminate starvation is crucial. But Catholicism must face its own internal contradictions in order to be credible and accomplish it.

Francis’ legacy reflects his priority on the most needy and marginalized people and parts of the world. Support for prisoners, transgender people, and immigrants, for example, are hallmarks of his generous and rich ministry. His daily pastoral calls to a Catholic parish in Gaza continued until the very last days of his life. The Pope’s good humor and his simple lifestyle (a fuel-efficient car and modest…

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Ahead of a gathering to elect a new pope, survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have urged cardinals to choose someone with a zero-tolerance policy.

The group End Clergy Abuse (ECA) issued an open letter to the cardinals as they meet informally in Rome this week before the election gets underway.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the main US-based group, also identified cardinals who themselves have problematic records.

Speaking in Rome, abuse survivor and SNAP member, Peter Isely, said he was sexually abused by a priest when he was in the 8th grade in southeastern Wisconsin.

“We believe the world and Catholics do not want another pope elected who has been involved in covering up child sex crimes,” he said.

Isely said this “seems like an extraordinarily reasonable and relevant criteria” that should be a priority for those who are going to elect the new leader…

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An advocacy group of survivors of clerical abuse is raising concerns about several cardinals who are buzzed about as papabili, or potential popes.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held a press conference Wednesday (April 30) in a hotel next to Pope Francis’ resting place at the Basilica of St. Mary Major to announce new information about prominent cardinals the group accuses of covering up or mishandling sexual abuse cases. In addition to compiling accusations and information for the public, SNAP has filed complaints with the Vatican under Pope Francis’ Vos Estis Lux Mundi (“You are the light of the world”) laws, intended to confront abuse.

Among those named in the group’s complaints are Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle, Péter Erdő, Robert Prevost and Joseph Tobin. SNAP claimed there is evidence of their ignoring or covering up reports of abuse and seeks full investigations.

“ We’re not saying that these individuals are…

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Rumors about pope frontrunner Pietro Parolin have been published this week on various news sites, and sexual abuse watchdogs have raised concerns about his and others’ records.

Rumors have crashed into the pre-conclave meetings, potentially upsetting a frontrunner for the next pope. 

The Italian daily Il Tempo published an article on Thursday (May 1), reporting papabile favorite Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state under Pope Francis, suffered a sudden drop in blood pressure and was assisted by medics for about an hour, a report the Vatican denied.

“No, it did not happen,” said Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni during a meeting with Vatican journalists on Friday (May 2) in Italian. 

Colombian Cardinal Jorge Enrique Jiménez Carvajal, who is not an elector due to his age, also denied the report, telling RNS and other reporters in Spanish, “I was in a meeting with Parolin yesterday. He was very well.”

Il Tempo mentioned…

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Casey Ashton Phillips, 32, has been charged with two counts of lewd/lascivious battery on a victim under 16 after a woman came forward to say he had coerced her into having sex in 2014 or 2015, when she was 14 or 15 years old; Phillips was 20 or 21 years old at the time of the alleged incidents and was a volunteer at Northwest Baptist Church.

The victim came forward in January 2025 and said Phillips was a volunteer at Northwest Baptist Church (5514 NW 23rd Avenue) when she was a child, and her parents sometimes let him drive her to church for youth group meetings. She said that on one occasion, he parked behind the church and told her he was having problems with a girl who wouldn’t have sex with him because he could not “fit” inside her.

The victim said Phillips used this to coerce her into…

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For eighteen straight years, Southern Baptist membership has declined.

This good news comes from the Southern Baptist Convention’s own data, its annual church profile which was released just a couple days ago.

Though the Southern Baptist Convention is still the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, its membership is now the lowest it’s been in 50 years.

When we consider this continuing decline in conjunction with some other recent numbers from the Pew Religious Landscape Study, we see a picture of an institution that’s on a trajectory toward extinction or irrelevance.

Two-thirds of Southern Baptists are age 50 or older, and only 10 percent are between the ages of 18 and 29.

As one commentator noted:

“That’s a demographic liver punch heading straight for the SBC.”

In other good news, the numbers are also down for the enrollment of children in…

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As the 2025 legislative session of the Missouri General Assembly nears the finish line, one bill moving closer to Gov. Mike Kehoe’s desk purports to allow public schools to hire spiritual chaplains.

However, if one reads the text of the legislation, it’s actually just pushing chaplains in name only.

The bill already cleared the Senate and House committees, thus just needing support from the full House. As a Baptist minister and the father of a public school child, I hope lawmakers will recognize the bill remains fundamentally flawed.

A chaplain is not just a pastor or a Sunday School teacher or a street preacher shouting through a bullhorn. This is a unique role, often in a secular setting that requires a chaplain to assist with a variety…

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Camden, New Jersey, Bishop Joseph Williams this week said he will do right by abuse victims in his diocese amid an ongoing legal dispute over a potential grand jury inquiry into clergy abuse there. 

The Camden Diocese has been embroiled in a yearslong fight with the state over whether the government can empanel a grand jury to investigate allegations of abuse by priests and other Church officials. The diocese has argued that the abuse in question would not fall under the purview of a grand jury. 

The state Supreme Court said in March that it would consider whether or not to allow the grand jury to be convened to consider the allegations. 

The high court heard arguments from both the diocese and the state this week, with news outlets reporting that some justices sounded “skeptical” over the diocese’s arguments against a possible grand jury. 

…

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Exactly one year after his apprehension overseas, a former Bradford County youth pastor was recently sentenced on sexual assault charges committed decades ago.

Robert David Fenton, 55, received a sentence of three to six years incarceration on charges related to sexual assault, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office. Upon his release, Fenton will serve eight years probation and have to register as a sex offender for life.

The sentencing was held on April 24 inside the Bradford County Courthouse with President Judge Maureen Beirne imposing the penalty.

Fenton pleaded guilty on Jan. 14 to aggravated indecent assault of a person less than 16 years old and statutory sexual assault, both second-degree felonies.

His sentence is part of a plea agreement reached by his defense and prosecutors from the attorney general’s office.

The dismissed charges included involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, and indecent assault. According to Beirne, the…

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Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson on Friday signed a controversial state law that requires priests to report child abuse to authorities even if they learn of it during the sacrament of confession.

The measure, introduced in the state legislature earlier this year, adds clergy to the list of mandatory abuse reporters in the state, but doesn’t include an exemption for information learned in the confessional.

A 2023 version of the proposal had offered an exemption for abuse allegations learned “solely as a result of a confession.” The latest bill does not contain such a carve-out, and in fact explicitly notes that clergy do not qualify for a “privileged communication” exemption.

Ferguson told reporters that as a Catholic he was “very familiar” with the sacrament of confession. “[I] felt this was important legislation,” he said on Friday.

Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly, meanwhile,  View Cache

Religious leaders in Washington will be required to report child abuse or neglect, even when it is disclosed in confession, under a new law signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson on Friday.

“Protecting our kids, first, is the most important thing. This bill protects Washingtonians from abuse and harm,” Ferguson said, noting Washington is one of five states in which clergy are not currently mandated reporters.

It took Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, three years to get the bill to the governor’s desk. Making sure disclosures during confidential conversations between a penitent and religious leader were not exempt was critical, she said.

“You never put somebody’s conscience above the protection of a child,” she said.

Senate Bill 5375 passed by margins of 64-31 in the House and 28-20 in the Senate. It takes effect July 27. 

It adds clergy members to the state’s list of individuals…

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As cardinals prepare to elect a new pope, campaigners warned Friday that neither of the frontrunners, Pietro Parolin nor Luis Antonio Tagle, would protect children and stamp out clerical sex abuse.

Cardinals gathered at the Vatican ahead of the conclave starting May 7 have identified the scandal of sexual abuse of minors by priests as one of the top challenges facing the Catholic Church today.

But a watchdog group warned Friday that two top papal contenders — cardinals Parolin, who served as secretary of state under the late Pope Francis, and Tagle, the former archbishop of Manila — would fall short.

“If Cardinal Parolin becomes pope we will have a consummate secret-keeper running the Catholic Church and I think any hope of transparency around sex abuse will be dashed completely,” Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of BishopAccountability.org, told a press conference just outside the Vatican walls.

“No church official in…

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Heard on All Things Considered

The Vatican says sex abuse is a major topic ahead of the conclave. A survivors network has launched a project to keep the the records of those who’ve sheltered abusive priests in the public eye.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

In the lead up to conclave, the Vatican says sexual abuse is among the issues cardinals are discussing this week, along with what qualities the new pope will need to face that challenge. NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose reports from Rome that survivors are shining a spotlight on some cardinals they say have covered up abuse.

JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: When she heard cardinals were talking about how the next pope would need to confront child sexual abuse, Sarah Pearson was heartened.

SARAH PEARSON: That’s evidence that what survivors have been doing is working.

DEROSE: Pearson is with SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Her…

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As Pope Francis’s body lay in state in the Vatican last week, one of the mourners — with eyes downcast and hands clasped — was a disgraced cardinal from Peru.

Juan Luis Cipriani, once the most influential religious figure in Peru as the former archbishop of Lima, stood at the side of the Argentine pontiff’s coffin in St. Peter’s Basilica.

He wore a black cassock, red sash and skullcap and a pectoral cross — the vestments that Francis himself forbade the cardinal to wear in the wake of accusations of sexual abuse against him.

Cipriani, a conservative and the first cardinal from the traditionalist Catholic group Opus Dei, was accused in 2018 of sexually abusing a teenager four decades ago, allegations that he denies.

Francis accepted his resignation as archbishop in January 2019.

The Vatican confirmed in January 2025, in response to media reports, that a “penal injunction” had been…

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Who will be the next pope?

The decision will be made when the College of Cardinals begins meeting in conclave from 16:30 on 7 May in the 15th Century Sistine Chapel.

It will involve 133 cardinals aged under 80, who will debate and then vote for their preferred candidate until a single name secures the support of two-thirds of them.

Their choice could have a profound impact on the Catholic Church and the world’s 1.4 billion baptised Roman Catholics, and it is harder than ever to predict who it will be.

With 80% of the cardinals appointed by Pope Francis himself, most are not only electing a pope for the first time, but will offer a broad global perspective.

For the first time in history, fewer than half of those given a vote will be European.

And although the college may be dominated by his appointments, they were not exclusively…

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Dear SNAP Community,

Hello from Rome!

The SNAP community has been active around the globe, and we have a lot to share.

Conference News:
We’re excited to announce that registration is now open for the SNAP 2025 Conference in Harrisburg! This milestone is thanks to the incredible work of Eduardo Lopez de Casas, Amber Perez, and the entire SNAP Conference Working Group.

Visit our website to:

• Reserve your hotel room
• Register for the conference
• Sign up for space in our 2025 program and ad book

Details about speakers and breakout sessions will be coming soon—stay tuned!

Global Advocacy Update from Rome:

Since the pope’s death, our Global Advocacy team has been on the ground in Rome, sharing SNAP’s demands for:

• Zero tolerance for abuse in the Catholic Church
• The selection of a new pope with no history of covering up abuse

Our efforts have been…

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At private dinners throughout Rome and at formal gatherings of hundreds of cardinals, talk among church leaders of who will next lead the church has certainly already begun.

The pope has died. Hundreds of cardinals are gathering in Rome. The secret ballot for a successor hasn’t begun. But among church leaders, talk about who will next lead the 2,000-year-old church is already underway, according to experts.

Pope Francis, the first head of the Catholic Church from the Americas and a champion of people on the margins, passed away at age 88 on Easter Monday, leaving vacant his seat at the head of the ancient institution with 1.4 billion followers worldwide. Around 250 cardinals were summoned to Italy for business, including the pope’s funeral and chief among their duties — electing the 267th head of the church.

Yet, the drama of papal selection has already begun. The days before the conclave May 7 at…

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A charismatic Canadian pastor overseeing one of British Columbia’s largest churches has been slammed with two lawsuits alleging that he groomed and sexually abused two girls between 10 to 25 years ago. In 2001, Art Lucier befriended a vulnerable 11-year-old foster child, Jasmine Hall, at a mall parking lot in Kitimat, a small town in western Canada and invited her to church, according to a lawsuit filed this week. He then groomed and sexually abuse her for the next eight years, the suit claims.

Also in 2001, Lucier befriended a 14-year-old foster child, Ayla Thompson, on a camping trip, and invited her to church, a second lawsuit states. Calling her “my baby girl,” Lucier proceeded to sexually abuse Thompson for 14 years, according to the second suit.

The abuse devastated their lives, leading to PTSD, suicide attempts, and loss of trust in religion, stated both similarly…

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Seven years ago, after New Jersey’s top prosecutor vowed to investigate decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests across the state, hundreds of victims began calling a newly established hotline and sitting with investigators to tell their stories.

Samuel Rivera of Essex County recounted how a priest had abused him as an altar boy beginning in the late1970s, both at his parish and at a summer house in Ocean County.

Todd Kostrub spoke of how a Franciscan brother in Burlington County had sexually assaulted him for more than a decade — beginning when he was just 7 years old.

And Lara McKeever said that a priest had abused her and three of her sisters in the 1980s and 1990s, and that officials in the Newark Archdiocese had helped cover it up.

But in the years since they and more than 500 others…

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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Earlier this week, I retrieved the morning paper from the driveway of the bishop’s residence and was greeted with the front-page headline, “Diocese stymies clergy abuse investigation,” accompanied by a photo of the “Diocese of Camden” sign that sits in front of our Chancery building on Market Street. I was deeply saddened by this. My sadness turned to perplexity, however, when I read, “Camden Bishop Joseph Andrew Williams declined to comment.” I was completely unaware of any invitation on behalf of the Philadelphia Inquirer to speak about the case currently being presented to the New Jersey Supreme Court, and I thought the journalists had made a mistake. They had not. The mistake was on our end, as I never received the respectful invitation of Chris Palmer to explain our legal position prior to the completion of their reporting. While it is understandable that difficulties…

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 Over the last decade, German Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner has become recognized as one of the Catholic Church’s leading experts in combatting clergy abuse. 

Zollner, director of the Institute of Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care at the Pontifical Gregorian University, was one of the founding members of Pope Francis’ Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He also was a lead organizer of Francis’ historic 2019 summit on the Protection of Minors in the Church. His work as a respected psychologist and psychotherapist has taken him around the globe to promote best practices for safeguarding and rooting out clergy abuse. 

In March 2023, Zollner resigned from Francis’ child protection commission and criticized the organization’s leadership, citing what he called a lack of transparency. 

In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter, Zollner reflected on Francis’ efforts to reform church laws on abuse…

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Sweden is widely considered one of the most secularized societies on the face of the earth, with a 2016 Gallup poll finding that almost 20 percent of Swedes identify as atheists and 55 percent say they’re non-religious, while an official government survey in 2015 found that only one in ten Swedes thinks religion is important in daily life.

Yet even in that hostile terrain, Catholicism today is growing – if not by leaps and bounds, at least at a steady pace, adding an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 members annually. Official figures put the total Catholic community at 130,000, but everyone knows the real number is much higher since many immigrant Catholics don’t register. The uptick is being driven in part by new arrivals, but also by a surprising number of conversions among native Swedes.

To some extent, the Church in Sweden today is the entire global Church in miniature, a…

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A Los Angeles cardinal, Roger Mahony, 89, dripping tracks of scandal from recycling predator priests, found a shot of redemption at Pope Francis’ funeral. 

Mahony is a cashiered cardinal. His successor, Archbishop José Gomez, restricted Mahony’s public role after the abuse scandals that cost the archdiocese some $660 million in 2007 legal settlements. Gomez recently approved $880 million to 1,353 survivors who filed later grievances. Mahony’s tarred history can be mined at BishopAccountability.org, the online archive that since 2003 has gathered documents on a criminal sexual underground in clerical culture. 

Aged out as a conclave voter, Mahony, thanks to Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the chamberlain in charge of the rituals, was granted proximity to Francis’ coffin — because of seniority, a Vatican spokesman announced. Thus a cameo of the ecclesial court whitewashing a prince’s record of facilitating sexual violations against young people. Mahony, fluent in Spanish, told Los Angeles’ ABC…

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Once upon a time, it was said that the idea of an American pope was unthinkable. In the beginning, it was for basically logistical reasons – steamships from the New World took so long to reach Rome that American cardinals often arrived too late to vote, and in any event they were never part of the political sausage-grinding before the conclave began.

Later, the veto on an American pope became geopolitical. You couldn’t have a “superpower pope,” or so the thinking ran, because too many people around the world would wonder if papal decisions were really being crafted in the Vatican or at CIA headquarters in Langley.

Today, however, that logic feels superannuated. America is no longer the world’s lone superpower, and, in any event, dynamics inside the College of Cardinals have changed. Geography is largely dead as a voting issue; cardinals no longer care what passport a candidate holds,…

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Ahead of a gathering to elect a new pope, survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have urged cardinals to choose someone with a zero-tolerance policy.

The group End Clergy Abuse (ECA) issued an open letter to the cardinals as they meet informally in Rome this week before the election gets underway.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the main US-based group, also identified cardinals who themselves have problematic records.

Speaking in Rome, abuse survivor and SNAP member, Peter Isely, said he was sexually abused by a priest when he was in the 8th grade in southeastern Wisconsin.

“We believe the world and Catholics do not want another pope elected who has been involved in covering up child sex crimes,” he said.

Isely said this “seems like an extraordinarily reasonable and relevant criteria” that should be a priority for those who are going to elect the new leader…

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Five years after the Archdiocese of New Orleans filed for bankruptcy, survivors of clergy sexual abuse are asking a federal judge to shut the entire process down. On Tuesday, attorneys representing survivors filed a motion to dismiss the Archdiocese’s Chapter 11 case, calling it a bad-faith maneuver that has prolonged suffering, shielded church assets, and wasted tens of millions of dollars.

Attorneys Representing Survivors of Catholic Church File – Catholic Church Abuse Archdiocese Church Abuse Doc. “The Archdiocese of New Orleans is the largest known employer of pedophiles in the 300+ year history of Louisiana,” it states. “This bankruptcy needs to be dismissed.”

Survivors Return to Court

The court hearing is scheduled for Thursday, May 1, 2025, at 9:30 a.m., in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (500 Poydras Street, Courtroom B-709). It coincides with the fifth anniversary of the Archdiocese’s bankruptcy filing—an anniversary many survivors…

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As Pope Francis’s body lay in state in the Vatican last week, one of the mourners — with eyes downcast and hands clasped — was a disgraced cardinal from Peru.

Juan Luis Cipriani, once the most influential religious figure in Peru as the former archbishop of Lima, stood at the side of the Argentine pontiff’s coffin in St. Peter’s Basilica.

He wore a black cassock, red sash and skullcap and a pectoral cross — the vestments that Francis himself forbade the cardinal to wear in the wake of accusations of sexual abuse against him.

Cipriani, a conservative and the first cardinal from the traditionalist Catholic group Opus Dei, was accused in 2018 of sexually abusing a teenager four decades ago, allegations that he denies.

Francis accepted his resignation as archbishop in January 2019.

The Vatican confirmed in January 2025, in response to media reports, that a “penal injunction” had been…

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Two years ago, Gov. Wes Moore signed into law the Child Victims Act, which enabled victims of child sexual abuse to sue their perpetrator and/or the institution responsible for supervising the perpetrator, no matter how long ago the abuse took place.  

The law has created a fiscal crisis for the state due to the fact that thousands of victims have come forward, making claims against the state itself for abuse suffered largely in juvenile detention facilities.   

In an attempt to undo the fiscal crisis the law created, the Maryland General Assembly passed House Bill 1378 in early April, just before the end of this year’s session. The bill reduces the cap for civil damages for child sexual abuse to $400,000 for public entities and $700,000 for private entities, including churches, parishes, private schools and nonprofits…

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It’s one measure of how young Luis Antinio “Chito” Tagle was when he burst onto the scene as a cardinal in 2012 that he was a contender for the papacy in 2013 but seen as way too young, and now 12 years later he’s again a serious possibility but in some circles his age, 67, still counts against him.

Given that the last two popes were elected at the ages of 78 and 76, one understands the reaction, but that’s not stopping a wide swath of the chattering classes from hailing the Filipino prelate as tanto papabile, meaning a highly serious candidate.

Paradoxically, however, as often as Tagle is touted for the papacy by media outlets, external commentators and ardent fans, he’ll be dismissed by an insider, insisting that he lacks the gravitas for the office and that his Vatican career has had uneven results.

No matter how you slice it,…

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Following this morning’s press conference, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has announced the addition of several new cardinal profiles to its  website, www.conclavewatch.org, and the release of a formal letter addressed to Cardinal Mario Grech. The letter updates SNAP’s previously filed March 25, 2025 Vos Estis Lux Mundi report, citing new church documents provided to SNAP via the international abuse survivors’ network.

VIEW VIDEO OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE HERE.

READ OUR LETTER TO CARDINAL GRECH.

This morning’s press conference marked the latest phase in SNAP’s Conclave Watch initiative, which aims to bring survivor-led scrutiny to the upcoming papal conclave and to shine a spotlight on cardinal electors whose records include negligence, cover-up, and complicity in cases of clergy sexual abuse.

“Since the launch of Conclave Watch, the response has been overwhelming,” said SNAP spokesperson Sarah Pearson. “Survivors and advocates…

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Robert C. Krankvich, aged 43, a Sergeant Marine Corps Veteran, passed away. He was the cherished son of Robert W. and Michele (nee Arthur), loving brother of William (Tara) Arthur, Nina Sutkus, and the late Tanya Marie Krankvich. Robert was the devoted uncle of Marissa, Robert, Madelyn, Charlotte, Dorothy, and Maverick, and the dear grandson of Neil Arthur, the late Dorothy Arthur, Robert V., and Charlotte Krankvich. He is also survived by many aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Visitation will take place on Friday, April 18, 2025, from 2:00 pm until the time of the Chapel Service at 7:00 pm at Richard J Modell Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 12641 W. 143rd Street, Homer Glen.

A private interment will follow at Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois.

In lieu of flowers, donations to The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in memory of Robert are greatly appreciated.

Robert will be…

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The county Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously approved a $4 billion settlement of more than 6,800 claims of sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated in juvenile facilities or foster care as far back as the 1980s, billed as the “costliest” such payout in county history.

The payout is expected to have implications on the county budget “for years to come,” county officials said when announcing the proposed settlement earlier this month. The impact is already being felt in the proposed 2025-26 budget, which includes 3% cuts for many county departments.

“On behalf of the county, I apologize wholeheartedly to everyone who was harmed by these reprehensible acts,” county CEO Fesia Davenport said in a statement announcing the proposed settlement. “The historic scope of this settlement makes clear that we are committed to helping the survivors recover and rebuild their lives — and to making and enforcing the systemic changes needed to keep…

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An advocacy group of survivors of clerical abuse is raising concerns about several cardinals who are buzzed about as papabili, or potential popes.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held a press conference Wednesday (April 30) in a hotel next to Pope Francis’ resting place at the Basilica of St. Mary Major to announce new information about prominent cardinals the group accuses of covering up or mishandling sexual abuse cases. In addition to compiling accusations and information for the public, SNAP has filed complaints with the Vatican under Pope Francis’ Vos Estis Lux Mundi (“You are the light of the world”) laws, intended to confront abuse.

Among those named in the group’s complaints are Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle, Péter Erdő, Robert Prevost and Joseph Tobin. SNAP claimed there is evidence of their ignoring or covering up reports of abuse and seeks full investigations. 

“ We’re not saying that these individuals are…

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I remember the day in March 2013 when Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis. As a young 20-something postulant, I lived in a convent cut off from the outside world—no phone, internet or newspapers. After a continuous prayer vigil during the conclave, we were granted rare permission to watch the momentous announcement of our new pope on the community room television.

When Pope Francis meekly appeared on that towering balcony and asked for the people’s blessing before giving his own, it seemed to signal a new direction for the church, one that I loved deeply enough to dedicate my life to as a Catholic sister.

A year later, having left the convent but still devoutly Catholic, I was in Rome with my family, standing among the faithful in St. Peter’s Square waiting for his general audience. I felt a surge of hope when he greeted the flock, a smile never leaving his…

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Interview with Gareth Gore, a London-based investigative journalist and editor, conducted by Scott Harris

Opus Dei is a controversial, small but powerful conservative organization within the Catholic Church, founded in Spain by Josemaría Escrivá in 1928. The secretive cult-like sect’s members practice corporal mortification, or self-inflicted pain as a form of penance, as depicted in the movie, “The DaVinci Code.” Opus Dei members have been accused of sexual abuse and exploitation of adolescent girls in several countries around the world.

In its early years, Opus Dei had close ties with Spain’s dictator General Francisco Franco, where several of the group’s members were appointed ministers in his fascist government.  The sect has often been accused of supporting brutal right-wing military regimes in Chile, Argentina and other nations across Latin America, a charge Opus Dei denies.

In his new book titled, “Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking and Right-Wing Conspiracy Inside…

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Lawyers for hundreds of survivors filed a motion Wednesday to end the church’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

A group of attorneys representing clergy abuse survivors is ramping up pressure to get New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond under oath before a judge decides whether to kick the church out of bankruptcy.

Lawyers for hundreds of survivors filed a motion Wednesday to end the church’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a day before the fifth anniversary of a case that’s paid none of about 500 survivors but has cost the archdiocese around $45 million in legal and professional fees.

The survivors’ request to dismiss the bankruptcy also comes a day after the federal bankruptcy judge overseeing the case, Meredith Grabill, ordered the archdiocese to appear in court on June 26 to show why she shouldn’t simply end the bankruptcy.

But by filing their own motion to dismiss the case, the group of survivors…

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With Pope Francis’ death, the Church must choose between progress and regression.

Pope Benedict XVI—the first pope in over 600 years to resign—was known for his strict adherence to conservative Catholic doctrine on social issues. Pope Francis—the next Pope—defined his papacy with firsts—first Jesuit pope, first non-European pope in 1,200 years, first pope to live outside the Apostolic Palace, first pope to take the name Francis and first pope from South America. With Pope Francis’ death and declining membership in the Catholic church, Francis’ successor must continue his legacy of humility and inclusivity to revitalize Church membership and sustain its role as a respected moral authority in the modern world.

Francis’ papacy marked a critical shift in tone for the Church, and now the Church sits at another crossroads: whether to deepen its commitment to openness, accountability and reform, or to risk retreating into outdated doctrines that alienate an…

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The next leader of the global Catholic Church needs to put the issue of clerical sex abuse at the heart of their papacy, victims’ advocates said on Wednesday, criticising the legacies of the last three popes.

The Church has been shaken for at least three decades by scandals around the world involving paedophile priests and the cover-up of their crimes, damaging its credibility and costing it hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

“We believe it should be the central issue in the conclave,” Peter Isely, one of the founders of abuse survivors’ group SNAP said in Rome, presenting a website that tracks allegations of cover-up by senior church officials.

The conclave, a secret meeting of cardinals to elect a new pope, is set to start on May 7.

Pope Francis, who died on April 21, reiterated pledges of “zero tolerance” made by his predecessor Benedict XVI, and introduced several…

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Survivors of clerical abuse, experts in child protection and victim advocacy groups have collectively decried the presence of a Peruvian cardinal accused of and punished for abusing a minor during pre-conclave meetings.

The cardinal in question, Peruvian Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, 81, has faced two allegations of sexually abusing minors, including a 2018 complaint to the Vatican that he’d sexually assaulted a teenage boy in confession that resulted in restrictions on his ministry by Pope Francis in 2019.

These restrictions, confirmed in January by Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, include apparently being barred from wearing his red cardinal robes and insignia, from returning to Peru without permission, from making public declarations, and from participating in a future conclave while he was still of age to do so.

Cipriani has repeatedly disobeyed each of these restrictions in recent months and was most recently seen paying respects to Pope Francis April 24 while…

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Accusations and counter-accusations are ricocheting about charismatic circles after the release of an elders’ report that exonerated apologist Michael Brown this week.

It effectively dampened a months-long investigation that concluded Brown engaged in “sexually abusive misconduct.” Meanwhile, some Brown supporters have taken to social media to toss “spirit of Jezebel” and “cancel culture” accusations at Brown critics.  

And Brown’s wife, Nancy, has spoken out publicly in support of her husband for the first time since an investigation started. She called accusations against her husband “vile” and asked God to reveal the truth for the sake of “GENUINE justice.”

The tense divisions among charismatics center on allegations that Brown swatted a former secretary’s rearend, kissed her, held her hand, and allowed her to sit on his lap in the early 2000s. He was also accused of engaging in inappropriate communications with a married woman in 2001 and 2002.

The wide spectrum of…

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The Archdiocese of New Orleans has been ordered to appear in federal court to defend ongoing proceedings in its years-old bankruptcy case, with a federal judge citing no resolution after years of proceedings and millions in expenditures.

Under financial pressure from clerical abuse litigation compounded by the coronavirus pandemic, the archdiocese announced in May 2020 that its administrative offices were filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Yet U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill said in an order this week that after “five years and millions of dollars expended, no coalition of parties has proposed a confirmable plan” to help the diocese compensate abuse victims both monetarily and with “nonmonetary remedies in the form of disclosure, transparency, and lasting institutional protocols.”

The judge directed the archdiocese to appear in the New Orleans court on June 26 to argue “why this case should not be dismissed for cause, including the…

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Cardinal Luis Tagle of the Philippines is known as the “Asian Francis.” But he has been criticized for not being vocal enough about his country’s brutal drug war and clerical sex abuse.

He never aspired to be a priest. After he rose to be a bishop, he implied that he suffered from impostor syndrome. And when Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle of the Philippines is asked if he could become the first Asian pope — a frequent question in recent years — he says it is impossible.

“Thinking of myself in that position, no, no, I laugh at it,” Cardinal Tagle told the BBC in 2015. “I cannot even manage my life. How can I manage a worldwide community?”

By then he had already been talked about as a potential replacement for Pope Benedict XVI. Now 67, Cardinal Tagle (pronounced TAG-leh) is once again on many unofficial short…

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Members of New Jersey’s Supreme Court sounded skeptical at times Monday about the effort of a Catholic diocese to stop the state from empaneling a grand jury to investigate clergy sexual abuse allegations.

The high court is considering the state attorney general’s appeal of lower court rulings that sided with the Diocese of Camden, finding the state cannot seat a grand jury to examine the church officials’ behavior because they’re not public officials.

The issue dates to a Pennsylvania grand jury report in 2018 that found more than 1,000 children had been abused in that state since the 1940s, prompting the New Jersey attorney general to announce a similar investigation.

But the results of New Jersey’s inquiry never became public partly because a legal battle was unfolding behind closed doors amid sealed proceedings.

Then, this year the Bergen Record obtained records disclosing a trial court’s…

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Catholic Camden Diocese continues fight in legal battle over abuse allegations

The New Jersey Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in the seven-year battle over allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. The court heard arguments from attorneys for the Catholic Diocese of Camden, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020, and the New Jersey attorney general’s office.

“The goal here is obviously to condemn the Catholic Church and priests and bishops,” said Lloyd Levenson, attorney for the diocese.

Both sides debated the laws concerning when and how a grand jury can be used and if it has the right to look into private entities like a church, or is limited to government officials or agencies.

“These victims want their story heard,” said Mark Crawford, state director of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests. “They want to get in front of the grand jury and tell that story. They want…

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Prosecutors charged an Outlook youth pastor with raping a teenage girl he knew.

In addition to five charges each of second-degree rape and third-degree child molestation, Benjamin Felix Guerra, 32, was also charged with three counts of third-degree child rape and a single count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes, according to a six-page charging document filed in Yakima County Superior Court Monday.

Guerra, who is out of custody after posting $10,000 bail, is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges April 24.

A woman called the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office in late March saying that Guerra had inappropriately touched her 15-year-old daughter, who was part of a youth group Guerra was leading, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by a sheriff’s detective.

The Yakima Herald-Republic typically does not identify sexual assault victims without their consent.

Sheriff’s spokesman Casey Schilperoort said the report did not identify the…

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An Idaho pastor and daycare director was arrested for sex trafficking this past weekend, the Elmore County Sheriff’s Office announced on Facebook.

Gregory “Greg” Jones, 58, serves as a pastor at Liberty Christian Fellowship in Mountain Home, a community off Interstate 84 just south of Boise, Idaho. He also works as the director of operations at the NXT Dream Center, a children’s daycare, preschool, and after-school center that is tied to the church.

Jones is facing two charges including human sex trafficking and forcible penetration, according to Elmore County court records. Police arrested Jones on April 25 following an arrest warrant by an Elmore County judge.

Jones’ crimes allegedly occurred in September 2024, court records report.

According to the sheriff’s statement, police first started looking into Jones through a broader trafficking investigation that began in January.

During this investigation,…

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United States District Judge William S. Stickman IV has denied a motion from former-pastor-turned-registered sex offender Duane Youngblood to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against him and 10 other unidentified individuals by Bishop T.D. Jakes, for alleging Jakes sexually assaulted him when he was a teenager some 40 years ago.

In an 18-page opinion and one-page order filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Stickman denied Youngblood’s special motion to dismiss Jake’s lawsuit pursuant to Pennsylvania’s Anti-SLAPP statute, arguing that it did not apply to Youngblood’s case.

The SLAPP acronym in Pennsylvania’s anti-SLAPP statute stands for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. It was signed into law by Gov. Josh Shapiro last July, Bochetto & Lentz notes. The statute allows, among other things, a defendant in a defamation lawsuit to file an early motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that the…

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Charges are emerging against a Mountain Home pastor and daycare director. Gregory Wayne Jones is facing accusations of human trafficking and sexual assault.

One mother tells Idaho News 6 she’s furious, not just at the allegations, but at the lack of communication. “I am disgusted. I’m angry. And very distrusting of not only the sheriff’s department at this point, but daycare facilities in general,” said parent Kerstyn Tracy.

Tracy said she found out through Facebook and friends — not her son’s daycare — that the man who ran the center had been arrested on charges of human sex trafficking and sexual penetration with a foreign object.

The Elmore County Sheriff’s Office took Jones into custody on Friday. Jones served as the director of operations at The NXT Dream Center and as a local pastor at Liberty Christian Fellowship Church in Mountain Home.

He is currently being held on $1 million…

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Gregory Wayne Jones, a director of operations at a daycare, preschool, and after-school center in Mountain Home, was arrested on Friday, April 25 by deputies with the Elmore County Sheriff’s Department on charges of “human sex trafficking” and “sexual penetration with a foreign object.”

His bail is currently set at $1 million.

According to a police statement, Jones has been under investigation since January 31, 2025. Throughout that investigation, several victims came forward and provided “critical evidence” in the case. The Sheriff’s Office commended the victims for their courage in bringing these allegations to light.

On its website, The NXT Dream Center describes itself as a “non-profit 501(c)(3) Community Development Corporation (CDC)” that provides the Mountain Home community with a preschool academy, childcare/nursery, before/after school programs, and a summer camp. On their About Us page, Gregory Jones is listed as the Director of Operations.

Gregory Jones is also…

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An accountability team of elders has cleared apologist Michael Brown for ministry, after they publicly rejected a recent third-party investigation conclusion that he engaged in “sexually abusive misconduct.”

These findings came after Brown’s Line of Fire board commissioned Jim Holler of Firefly, a third-party investigator, in January to investigate reports of alleged sexual misconduct by Brown. Specifically, former secretary Sarah Monk claimed Brown swatted her rear end, kissed her, held her hand, and allowed her to sit on his lap in the early 2000s while he headed up the Fire School of Ministry in Pensacola, Florida.

The Elder Accountability Team assessed Firefly’s findings, which were released earlier this month, and reframed what Firefly called “sexually abusive misconduct” as “leadership misconduct.”

In their 27-page report, the elders also termed a second instance of Brown’s inappropriate communications with a married woman in 2001 and 2002 as a “moral indiscretion.”

“His actions in…

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A Donegal priest is back in court on a child sex charge this week.

The Northern Ireland Court Service has confirmed that Fr Edward Gallagher, 58, will appear before Derry Magistrates Court via videolink at 11am this Thursday, May 1.

Fr Gallagher, who is charged with attempted sexual communication with a child, is currently being held on remand in Maghaberry Prison near Lisburn.

It is understood the former Parish priest of Moville does not intend to apply for bail at this stage.

A cross-border policing investigation into the accused priest is currently underway and Gardai attended a mobile home in Buncrana in recent days, removing a number of items for examination.

The PSNI and An Garda Síochána were contacted in relation to the probe, but both said they could not comment “on any activities which may form part of any ongoing investigation.”

Fr Gallagher, with an adress at Orchard Park…

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So Sue Me

“I feel like a lure,” she said to me. “Like I’m putting myself out there giving survivors false hope that churches are willing to learn and change.” Then she, a devout Christian, said, “I have literally no hope left that churches are going to change.”

Last week I had a long conversation with a fellow advocate from a partner organization that, like Into Account, specializes in strategic support for survivors who have been abused in Christian environments. We’re almost exactly the same age, and our advocacy careers have had somewhat similar trajectories, but what matters the most to me about our collaboration is how deeply aligned our priorities are.

We’re not in the business of working with survivors of church-based abuse because we want to “restore the church” or “save the church from itself,” despite the frequency with which those intentions are projected onto us. We both…

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A coalition of survivors of clergy sexual abuse demanded Wednesday that cardinals entering the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis pick a pope who will adopt a universal zero-tolerance policy for abuse and himself has a clean record handling cases.

The group End Clergy Abuse issued an open letter to the cardinals who are meeting informally this week before the start of the May 7 conclave. SNAP, the main U.S.-based survivor group, also identified cardinals who themselves have problematic records in a new database, highlighting a new level of scrutiny of all possible contenders for the papacy.

The developments come amid real questions about how prominent the abuse scandal is featuring in the discussions about finding a new pope. After two decades of unrelenting revelations about abuse and cover-up that have discredited the Catholic hierarchy, many church leaders would like to think the issue is in the past, the…

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It is both poignant and fitting that one of Pope Francis’ last official acts was to advance the causes of seven candidates for canonization. Francis’ prolificacy in naming saints outpaced even that of St. John Paul II, who canonized 482 people during his 27 years as pope, more than all of his predecessors combined. Pope Francis named almost double that number in just 12 years. Admittedly, that total—942—is skewed by the inclusion of the canonization of the 813 martyrs of Otranto. Even so, Francis’ penchant for saint-making was impressive—and telling. A person’s heroes often point to their values. In Francis’ case, the people he singled out for their heroic virtues reveal a great deal about his papal priorities.

Francis did not necessarily have a special connection to everyone he raised to the honors of the altar; most causes simply happened to reach the final stages of a long process during…

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A new chapter could soon begin for the Catholic church in Central New York.

A confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Monday on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse’s proposed plan to exit bankruptcy. It is expected to last for about a week.

The diocese originally filed for bankruptcy nearly five years ago in June 2020 as it faced a growing number of sex abuse lawsuits. About 400 sex abuse claims have been filed.

The centerpiece of the 94-page bankruptcy exit plan, formally known as a plan of reorganization, is the creation of a $100 million fund to pay abuse survivors if they end their lawsuits against the church. Diocese officials are expected to describe how the money will be paid for.

Objections have been filed to the plan, including by a government-appointed trustee and several insurance companies.

…

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The judge has expressed frustration with the lack of progress before, as the legal fees paid by the church to pursue bankruptcy protection ballooned over $41M.

In a major development for the second-oldest Catholic diocese in the country, a US bankruptcy judge has ordered the Archdiocese of New Orleans to appear in court this June and show why its five-year-old bankruptcy case should not be dismissed.

Judge Maredith Grabill’s order suggests little concrete progress has been made since Sept. 13, 2024, when the archdiocese and a committee representing more than 500 clergy abuse claimants filed competing plans for settling the bankruptcy.

Those two plans were worlds apart, with the church offering to pay the survivors an average of $125,000 per claimant and the committee seeking an average of about $2 million per claimant.

The judge has expressed frustration with the lack of progress before, as the legal fees paid by…

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse will face “financial hardships” in the years ahead as it pays its share of a $100 million fund for sex abuse survivors, a top official said Monday.

Stephen Breen, the diocese’s chief financial officer, testified in bankruptcy court that the diocese could be forced to sell property, fundraise aggressively or find ways to cut costs.

Breen said the diocese will do “everything we can to regain our financial strength.”

“We can make it through this,” he said.

Breen was one of three witnesses who testified at a confirmation hearing Monday on the diocese’s plan to exit bankruptcy.

The diocese originally filed for bankruptcy nearly five years ago in June 2020 as it faced a growing number of sex abuse lawsuits. About 400 sex abuse claims have been filed.

The centerpiece of the…

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They call him the “Asian Francis” because his personal simplicity and emphasis on the poor and marginalized mirror the life and papacy of Pope Francis. Now, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle is for a second time a serious contender to be pope. 

In 2013, Tagle was a contender in the conclave that elected Francis. The youthful bishop from the Philippines was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI just four months ahead of Benedict’s shock resignation from the papacy.

Even then, Tagle’s skills as a gifted communicator and as a humble man of the people — combined with his widely respected theological acumen — had landed him on many short lists.

In the 12 years since then, the profile of Tagle, now 67, has only increased in Rome and around the world, leading many Vatican observers to believe he remains a serious contender to…

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There has been little appetite historically among the College of Cardinals for the idea of a pope from the United States, a global superpower. But this conclave could be different.

Two possible papal contenders from the United States are receiving consideration, including Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, New Jersey.

At 72, Tobin’s ecclesial resume is a full one — built predominantly outside of the United States, which might ease concerns by those wary of an Americentric papacy.

Born in Detroit, the oldest of 13 children, Tobin joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, better known as the Redemptorists, and was ordained a priest in 1978.

The Redemptorists often describe themselves as “kitchen priests,” meant to convey their willingness to get their hands dirty and not shy away from messy situations, be it in geopolitics or personal lives. Tobin, who had worked for a while as…

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Catholic cardinals agreed yesterday to begin a conclave on May 7 to elect a new pope, highlighting clerical sexual abuse as one of the key challenges facing Pope Francis’s successor.

Cardinals under the age of 80, will meet in the Sistine Chapel to choose a new leader for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, in a mystery-shrouded ritual dating back to the Middle Ages.

The date was decided at a meeting of cardinals of all ages early yesterday, two days after the funeral of Francis who died on April 21, aged 88.

‘’The cardinals, known as princes of the Church, outlined Catholicism’s most pressing challenges, including evangelisation, the relationship with other faiths and the issue of abuse.  “There was talk of the qualities that the new pontiff must possess to respond effectively to these challenges,” the Vatican said.

The Church’s 252 cardinals were recalled to Rome after the Argentine pontiff’s death,…

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To Catholics in the United States, especially, Mahony is not only a face of the sexual abuse scandal but a totem of the ongoing leadership crisis plaguing the Church.

When Pope Francis’s coffin was sealed on Friday in St. Peter’s Basilica, Cardinal Roger Mahony was among the official witnesses.

If you are wondering why that matters, well, suffice it to say Mahony’s presence sends a signal.

Mahony was archbishop of Los Angeles for more than a quarter century, from 1985 to 2011, during which he grossly mismanaged abuse cases and even shielded priests who had abused children.Mahony’s successor in Los Angeles, Archbishop José Gomez–who never got a red hat–stripped Mahony of his public duties in 2013, but Mahony continued to enjoy some favor in Rome.

To Catholics in the United States, especially, Mahony is not only a face of the scandal but a totem of the ongoing leadership crisis plaguing…

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A judge blocked the probe from moving forward after the Camden Diocese challenged it in court. The attorney general’s office has appealed.

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office told the state Supreme Court on Monday that a state judge acted prematurely two years ago when he sided with attorneys for the Camden Diocese and barred prosecutors from impaneling a grand jury to investigate decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.

But during an hourslong hearing in Trenton, an attorney for the diocese told the justices that he believed the probe was properly short-circuited. New Jersey law permits prosecutors to produce only grand jury reports about government officials or agencies, attorney Lloyd Levinson argued before the court — and any attempt by prosecutors to target private institutions should not be allowed to move forward.

“I believe private entities are off-limits,” he said.

The arguments came as the…

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After initially insisting he would take part in the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis, Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, stripped of his privileges as a cardinal by the late pontiff in 2020 and convicted of financial fraud by a Vatican court in 2023, has withdrawn after reportedly being shown documents signed by the pope confirming it was his will Becciu not participate.

“Having at heart the good of the church, which I’ve served and will continue to serve with fidelity and love, as well as to contribute to the communion and serenity of the conclave, I’ve decided to obey as I always have the will of Pope Francis to not enter into the conclave, despite remaining convinced of my innocence,” the 76-year-old Becciu said in a statement.

That marks a change of tune for Becciu, who initially insisted he would file into the Sistine Chapel along with other…

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The New Jersey Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that could determine whether state prosecutors can convene a grand jury to investigate allegations of clergy sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

During the hour-long session, several justices expressed skepticism toward arguments made by attorneys for the Diocese of Camden, who contend such an investigation would exceed legal authority.

The legal dispute stems from a 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report that documented widespread abuse of minors by clergy over decades.

Following that report, then-New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal launched a similar investigation and established a clergy abuse hotline that received 550 calls alleging abuse dating back to the 1940s.

However, the New Jersey inquiry stalled when lower courts ruled in favor of the diocese, finding that grand juries cannot investigate private conduct.

Justice Anne Patterson questioned whether the diocese’s challenge was premature, noting no grand jury had yet…

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• Case over targeting private groups for ‘public affairs’ probe

• Court skeptical church can stop investigation before it starts

A stalled New Jersey state effort to investigate Catholic Church child abuse appears primed for a restart by justices inclined to let a special grand jury proceed.

Monday’s two-hour oral argument saw the majority of the court lean into how speculative courts can get when deciding whether to cut short special presentments—proceedings in which the New Jersey Attorney General calls in jurors to tackle issues of broad public policy.

Several New Jersey attorneys general have pushed to follow in the footsteps of Pennsylvania, which released a report in 2018 unearthing instances of abuse against 1,000 children. But the effort …

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Pope Francis famously bucked convention by living not in the traditional papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace but rather the Casa Santa Marta. But suppose the maverick pontiff had taken things a step further and decided to relocate not merely from one Vatican spot to another, but outside Rome altogether?

A good case could be made that given the pontiff’s social and political priorities, he might well have chosen Marseille in France – where he would have found a highly congenial host in the 66-year-old Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, often described as the late pontiff’s favorite bishop.

Marseille is, and always has been, a port city, making it a natural crossroads of peoples, cultures and faiths. Today roughly 25 percent of the population is Muslim, mostly immigrants from North Africa. It’s also a place of contrasts between great wealth and heartbreaking poverty in the immigrant neighborhoods on the northern outskirts of…

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The Camden diocese has fought the case for seven years in secrecy

The New Jersey Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a long-fought case about whether a state grand jury can call out a private entity like the Catholic Church and recommend reforms for its public harms, like clergy sex abuse — or if such presentments are permissible only when they involve public entities and ongoing harms, as church attorneys contend.

The Catholic Diocese of Camden has been battling the state to prevent a presentment since 2019, when former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal vowed to investigate clergy sex abuse. He acted after a Pennsylvania grand jury returned a presentment against hundreds of priests who victimized more than 1,000 children over seven decades

Lower-court judges sided with the diocese and sealed the New Jersey case, so while the legal fight has continued for six years in secrecy, abuse victims…

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Cardinal Luis Tagle of the Philippines is known as the “Asian Francis.” But he has been criticized for not being vocal enough about his country’s brutal drug war and clerical sex abuse.

He never aspired to be a priest. After he rose to be a bishop, he implied that he suffered from impostor syndrome. And when Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle of the Philippines is asked if he could become the first Asian pope — a frequent question in recent years — he says it is impossible.

“Thinking of myself in that position, no, no, I laugh at it,” Cardinal Tagle told the BBC in 2015. “I cannot even manage my life. How can I manage a worldwide community?”

By then he had already been talked about as a potential replacement for Pope Benedict XVI. Now 67, Cardinal Tagle (pronounced TAG-leh) is once again on many unofficial short…

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In a meeting to prepare for the election of a successor to Pope Francis, in a conclave starting May 7, cardinals outlined “evangelisation, the relationship with other faiths (and) the issue of abuse” as the Church’s most pressing challenges.

It was a statement welcomed by Anne Barrett Doyle, a long-time campaigner who co-founded BishopAccountability.org, which collates information on abuse.

“The Church worldwide, through its parishes, schools, hospitals and orphanages, cares for tens of millions of children,” she told AFP.

“The next pope’s most sacred obligation must be to protect them from abuse. Their safety is at stake, as is the moral authority of the church.”

Francis, who died on April 21, did more than any other pontiff to tackle the scourge of abuse, which appeared to overwhelm his predecessor, German Benedict XVI.

But critics say the Argentine’s actions during 12 years as pope fell well short of the “zero-tolerance” he…

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Key Points

• The New Jersey Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a long-running case over whether the state can form a special grand jury to investigate the Catholic Church’s handling of sex abuse allegations.

• The Diocese of Camden has sued to block the effort, arguing that it would violate judicial rules and be unfair to many accused clergy members.

• Justices grilled lawyers for both sides but seemed sympathetic to the state’s arguments.

A seven-year battle over whether New Jersey can investigate allegations of decades of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in the state — and the extent of any church cover-up — landed in the state’s highest court on Monday.

The state Supreme Court heard the first of what are expected to be two days of arguments over a challenge brought by the Catholic Diocese of Camden, which has so far stalled a proposed grand jury investigation into all five of the…

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The Italian cardinal at the heart of the Vatican’s “trial of the century” announced Tuesday he was withdrawing from participating in the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope for “the good of the church,” ending days of drama that had overshadowed the proceedings.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu’ s status has dominated discussions in the days after Pope Francis’ death amid questions about whether he would participate in the conclave to elect Francis’ successor or not.

After his 2020 downfall, Becciu had said he would not participate in any future conclave. But in recent days he had asserted he had a right to enter the Sistine Chapel with other cardinals on May 7.

On Tuesday, the 76-year-old Italian issued a statement through his lawyers that said: “Having at heart the good of the church, which I have served and will continue to serve with fidelity and love, as well as to…

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For the second time in four days, a disgraced cardinal reportedly has participated in high-level events following the death of Pope Francis.

According to the online news outlet Crux, Cardinal Luis Cipriani, the Peruvian church official who was punished by Pope Francis for allegedly abusing a minor, was seen today leaving the hall where the world’s cardinals have begun to meet privately. He was wearing cardinal’s garb, an apparent violation of the restrictions put on him by the Pope.

At their meeting today, the cardinals agreed that fighting clergy sex abuse should be a priority for the next pope, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni. 

The Crux report of Cipriani’s inclusion with his fellow cardinals comes just a few days after Cardinal Roger Mahony was honored with privileged roles in the casket-closing and burial ceremonies for Pope Francis. Abuse files forced out of the Los Angeles archdiocese in 2013…

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[See also the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, setting the procedure for the general congregations and the conclave.]

As cardinals meet in Rome ahead of a conclave to elect the next pope, a Peruvian cardinal accused of sexual abuse and whose ministry was restricted by Pope Francis has joined private meetings with his fellow red-hatters.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said April 28 that during a morning session of pre-conclave general congregations that day, cardinals discussed “issues of relevance for the future of the Church.”

These topics, he said, included “the relationship with the modern world and some challenges that are highlighted, such as evangelization, relations with other faiths, and the issue of abuse. They spoke about the qualities the new pontiff will have to possess in order to respond to these challenges.”

The discussion on abuse and who will be up to the task of credibly tackling it by…

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American survivors of clergy sex abuse are issuing a clear warning as cardinals prepare to gather in Rome to elect the next pope: Don’t repeat the past.

The advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is demanding that the upcoming conclave choose a pontiff who has not covered up abuse and who will commit, on his first day, to a binding zero-tolerance law.

“The conclave can’t be another smoke-filled room where survivors get ignored,” SNAP spokeswoman Sarah Pearson told the Daily Mail. “If they pick another pope who plays defense for abusers, the damage will be permanent.”

When he received the role of pontiff, Pope Francis inherited a church mired in scandal. In response, he repeatedly made clear his intent to instigate change.

Abuse victim groups say he didn’t do nearly enough.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability, another U.S. organization holding bishops to task for lack of sufficient action, told…

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Pope Francis passed away on April 21st, 2025. With him, the last hope for Church abuse survivors is also gone.

Survivors of clergy sex abuse report not feeling optimistic about the direction of the Catholic Church. They are afraid that the next Pope won’t be in their corner in their fight against injustice. They are not sure if the new Pope will implement any of the reforms to put a stop to abuse in churches all across the world. Many of the survivors express a profound sense of betrayal and distrust.

Those who have suffered at the hands of the Church’s abuse will never get the justice they want. The bureaucracy of the system is very strong. Also, the internal practice of the Church to let things be as they are will not bring the changes abuse victims and survivors want.

Survivors are also sure that the new administration will…

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The prelate and deputy secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the highest authority in the pursuit of pedophiles within the Church, believes that the next pope will not be able to ignore victims’ cry for justice

The Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, 65, is perhaps the most respected figure within the Vatican in the fight against child abuse. He led the landmark investigation into Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, as well as inquiries into the bishops in Chile and the recent probe into Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, a powerful ultraconservative organization in Peru.

In 2019, he returned to the Vatican’s inner circle to address the ongoing crisis plaguing the Catholic Church: clerical pedophilia. The pope entrusted him with a key role as Adjunct Secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and as a member of the organizing committee for…

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When Pope Francis gave the green light for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to issue its controversial 2024 declaration Fiducia Supplicans, authorizing the blessing of persons in same-sex unions, presumably the point was to fill a pastoral void and to reach out to a constituency often alienated from the Catholic Church.

Under the heading of unintended consequences, however, one other clear consequence of the declaration was to launch a new papal candidate upon the world: 65-year-old Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who also serves as the elected leader of the African bishops as president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).

A headline at the time in the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, atop a piece by veteran Vatican correspondent Franca Giansoldati, said it all: “The profile of Cardinal Ambongo advances among the future papabili: He led the African blockade…

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When Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa heard the news Easter Monday that Pope Francis had died, he immediately cancelled his appointments and packed his bags for Rome. As he was leaving the headquarters of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, where he has led the Catholic flock in the Holy Land for the last decade, a small group of aides, employees and friends gathered outside as he was getting in the car to head to the airport.

A visibly touched Pizzaballa watched as they sang to him in Arabic: “May the Lord guide your steps with his wisdom, fill your heart with his spirit, and be with you if it’s his prayer that you should lead his Church.”

Aside from being a sweet gesture, the impromptu serenade also had the feel of a farewell, since the people making up that cluster knew there’s a decent chance they won’t be seeing the 60-year-old Pizzaballa…

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One of the priests implicated in the scandal of violence and sexual assaults at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram Catholic school in the Pyrénées spent several years in Côte d’Ivoire, running a school from 1973 to 1979.

Ever since the “Bétharram school scandal” came to light in October 2023, testimonies from former students of the Notre-Dame de Bétharram Catholic boarding school, located in the French Pyrénées, near the city of Pau, who have alleged being victims of acts of physical and sexual violence, have piled up. In 15 months, 200 such reports have been filed. However, one blind spot in this exceptional scandal remains: Given that the Bétharram religious congregation has been established in 14 other countries since the 19th century, could there also be victims abroad?

Some of the priests accused of abuses in France had previously served in Vietnam, Thailand, the Central African Republic, Morocco, or Côte…

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A Catholic diocese wants to stop New Jersey from trying to empanel a grand jury to investigate allegations of clergy sexual abuse, with arguments before the state’s high court set for Monday.

After a Pennsylvania grand jury report found over 1,000 children had been abused since the 1940s, New Jersey formed a task force in 2018 and intended to empanel its own grand jury to investigate allegations of abuse there. But the Diocese of Camden pushed back in court in 2021, arguing that state law doesn’t permit having a grand jury investigate possible abuse by private church officials.

That legal battle has happened away from public view for years, as courts had sealed the proceedings in New Jersey and the attorney general’s office didn’t share updates. But last month, the state Supreme Court unsealed a handful of documents between the diocese and the attorney general after the Bergen…

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Following Pope Francis’s death at age 88, Catholics worldwide are beginning to call for his canonization, though Church experts caution that the path to sainthood, even for a beloved pontiff, could take years, The New York Post reported.

Experts said Tuesday that Pope Francis’s devoted followers are expected to rally soon so that the late pontiff can be fast-tracked to sainthood. But despite the admiration he inspired, it will likely take at least five years — and possibly much longer — before the Argentine-born leader could be declared a saint, if at all.

When Pope John Paul II died in 2005, chants of “Santo Subito!” or “Saint Right Away!” filled the air at his funeral. It took nine years — and Francis’s election — before John Paul II and his predecessor, Pope John XXIII, were canonized.

Francis, who passed away early Monday, enjoyed widespread popularity for his…

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The death of Pope Francis fills me with a deep sadness as we mourn the loss of a kind, courageous, and gentle pastor.

I also have a sense of gratitude to God for the great leadership he has given to the Church over the course of his papacy.

The first Latin-American to be pope, he insisted right from the start that a key focus of his pontificate would be on ‘the peripheries’.

His preaching, teaching and travels brought him to many of the poorest and most marginalised communities on the earth to remind them of their human dignity as children of God.

He urged politicians and other leaders there, and everywhere, to work for peace, justice and responsible economic development. The plight of the peoples of Gaza, Ukraine and in so many other theatres of conflict was constantly on his lips and in his prayers.

He urged an end to…

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Two popes . . . Francis and John Paul II . . . their deaths separated by almost exactly twenty years. Both world-renowned figures and similar in personal approach . . . but the two were different, as well. I had the honor of covering both.  

The news of the death of Pope Francis came just as I was returning to London from a long Easter weekend in the States. While Francis had been seriously ill, he also seemed to be on the mend, so his quick and quiet death at his modest apartment in the Santa Marta guesthouse caught many by surprise. A planned “catnap” by me at home turned into a quick dash to our UK studio. 

In a series of “live shots,” I talked about a man who seemed so familiar to all. They called him the “People’s Pope.” And no wonder. The first from the Americas. For 12…

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Francis’ words at Easter were ones of reconciliation, compassion, inclusivity and understanding. Let us hope that they will be heeded

The spectacular funeral of Pope Francis, with 400,000 mourners in and around St Peter’s Square, provided a fitting tribute to a man who made a difference. He will not be an easy act to follow.

Among the crowds gathered to pay their respects were 50 heads of states, part of 170 foreign delegations. They should all reflect on the late pope’s legacy and, especially, his persistent calls for peace, compassion and care for the world’s most vulnerable.

The death of an 88-year-old, recently discharged from hospital, would not normally come as a shock.

But Francis, who led the Catholic Church for 12 years, had raised hopes he was recovering by appearing on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on Easter Sunday. The pontiff even greeted cheering crowds from his Popemobile.

…

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By Cindy Wooden | Catholic News Service
Saturday, April 26, 2025

Pope Francis was “a pope among the people, with an open heart toward everyone,” said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, as he presided over the funeral of the pope, who died April 21 at the age of 88.

And the people — an estimated 200,000 of them — were present as 14 pallbearers carried Pope Francis’ casket into St. Peter’s Square and set it on a carpet in front of the altar for the funeral Mass April 26.

His burial was scheduled for later the same day in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major after being driven in a motorcade through the center of the city where he served as bishop from the day of his election to the papacy March 13, 2013.

Security around the Vatican was tight, not only because of the number…

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From working as a bouncer at a Buenos Aires nightclub to presiding over the Vatican, the path Pope Francis forged as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church was as unlikely as it was unprecedented.

Francis, who died Monday, April 22, at age 88, was keen to flex his muscles as supreme pontiff. He angered some Catholic Church traditionalists by reaching out to gay and marginalized people, demanding justice for the poor and the dispossessed and railing against unbridled capitalism and climate change.

As the first pope from the Americas, Francis was in many ways the ultimate Vatican outsider who charted a new and more liberal course as the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

“He embarked on a real reorganization of the church and a real reorientation of the church after four decades of conservative theologians’ leading…

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Each day between now and the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis, on a date yet to be set, John Allen is offering a profile of a different papabile, the Italian term for a man who could be pope. There’s no scientific way to identity these contenders; it’s mostly a matter of weighing reputations, positions held and influence wielded over the years. There’s also certainly no guarantee one of these candidates will emerge wearing white; as an old bit of Roman wisdom has it, “He who enters a conclave as a pope exits as a cardinal.” These are, however, the leading names drawing buzz in Rome right now, at least ensuring they will get a look. Knowing who these men are also suggests issues and qualities other cardinals see as desirable heading into the election.

When Pope Francis gave the green light for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the…

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The next pontiff must continue the ‘revolution’ started by Pope Francis, a group of Irish priests seeking reform of the Catholic Church said this weekend.

And this should include open debate about the ‘Aposibility of women being ordained and discussions around celibacy, according to the Association of Catholic Priests, formed by Irish clerics eager to see reforms first proposed by the Vatican Council more than 60 years ago.

Speaking about reforms that began under Francis, a founding member of the association, Fr Brendan Hoban, told Extra.ie: ‘Up to Pope Francis coming, bishops couldn’t discuss whether priests should be celibate, whether or not you should have a married clergy or whether women could be ordained.

‘These “red button” issues were never discussed and priests got into bother if they wrote about it.

‘Francis has changed all that completely. He has said: “I want you to say what you…

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Few could have predicted that a comment Pope Francis made during a 2018 visit to Chile would blow up into the biggest crisis of his papacy, and one that eventually set the Catholic Church on a new path of accountability for clergy sexual abuse.

Francis was asked by a TV reporter about a Chilean bishop who had been accused by victims of having covered up the crimes of Chile’s most notorious pedophile. Francis had been defending the bishop for years and shot back that there was “not one shred of proof against him. It’s all slander. Is that clear?”

His irate response struck a nerve in Chile, which was just beginning to come to terms with a horrific legacy of clergy abuse, and it prompted Francis’ top child protection adviser to sternly rebuke the pope for his harmful words.

But then something remarkable happened: Rather than dig in, Francis commissioned…

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Pope Francis’s successor will face a litany of challenges, from the place of women and the LGBTQ community in the Catholic Church, to diplomatic challenges in a conflict-riven world.

UNITY

Uniting a divided church will be one of the main tasks facing the new pope.

During his 12-year-long papacy, Francis often came under fire for his more liberal policies, such as welcoming migrants and restricting the use of the Latin Mass.

Traditionalists in the United States and Africa in particular were angered by his efforts to give lay people and women a greater role in the Church, and his decision to open the door to blessing same-sex unions.

His successor will have to make peace between the Church’s conservative and liberal fringes.

“A pope always brings people together,” Luxembourger Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich told reporters.

“That unity in the church will be very important. But you don’t unify the church by…

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The Swiss Catholic Church should avolid dividing members with sweeping reforms, according to the president of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference, Charles Morerod.

Following the death of Pope Francis, questions have arisen about the future direction of the Catholic Church.

Excessive reforms would divide the members of the Catholic Church in Switzerland even more, said Morerod in an interview with the SonntagsZeitung.

“Nevertheless, we are always making reforms in small steps.” With regard to reforms, the Church in Switzerland cannot be viewed in isolation, Morerod added.

In Switzerland, there is a “great divide between traditionalists and progressives”, said the Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg. Opinions are often diametrically opposed, especially when it comes to emotional issues such as homosexuality.

Morerod cited a mass in Geneva as an example: it was not appreciated by everyone that a homosexual person had been invited to attend. He did not want to express his personal…

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For years, traditionalists raged at Pope Francis’s liberal approach. The question now is whether his successor will walk the same path, or take the Catholic Church in a new direction.

Cardinals will meet within days for a conclave to elect a new pontiff, sparking fevered speculation about how the next pope will guide the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

But experts say that despite his reforms, Francis did not change fundamental doctrine — suggesting the next leader could bring a fresh style and different priorities, but is unlikely to upend 2,000-years of belief.

“Whether on the issues of abortion, the end of life, marriage for priests, the ordination of women, or homosexuality, which were points of traditional conservative doctrine, Francis has changed nothing,” said Francois Mabille, director of the Geopolitical Observatory of Religion.

The Argentine certainly took some radical steps. He made institutional changes, lifted the veil…

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ROME – Fundamentally, every conclave shapes up as a referendum on the papacy that just ended: Do we want to keep going in the same direction, or do we want to change?

After the death of John Paul II in 2005, the vote was overwhelming for continuity, which is how you got to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, John Paul’s right-hand man, as Pope Benedict XVI in just four ballots; in 2013 the decision was massively for change, explaining the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires as Pope Francis in just five.

If we assume the same choice will shape the 2025 edition, then it’s worth asking who the continuity candidate might be this time – and it’s hard to think of a more obvious answer than 69-year-old Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, arguably as close to a potential “Pope Francis II” as one will find among the plausible…

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Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa left the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter on Wednesday to head to the Vatican for his first-ever conclave to select the next pope. He departed as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, but some have speculated that he could have a new title — pope — in the coming weeks.

“This is a moment during which we need to be united in prayer, first for me, because this is a time in which I carry a great and important responsibility. And we must pray for the church, for we are a part of a big body which is [the] universal church, the Catholic Church. I am sure that your prayers, all together, will bring the right choices for the good of the universal church,” Pizzaballa said in a recorded statement before his departure.

Pizzaballa is widely viewed as one of the favorites to succeed…

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Each day between now and the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis, on a date yet to be set, John Allen is offering a profile of a different papabile, the Italian term for a man who could be pope. There’s no scientific way to identity these contenders; it’s mostly a matter of weighing reputations, positions held and influence wielded over the years. There’s also certainly no guarantee one of these candidates will emerge wearing white; as an old bit of Roman wisdom has it, “He who enters a conclave as a pope exits as a cardinal.” These are, however, the leading names drawing buzz in Rome right now, at least ensuring they will get a look. Knowing who these men are also suggests issues and qualities other cardinals see as desirable heading into the election.

ROME – It’s a matter of historical record that years before the conclave of 2005…

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