“I think we’ve learnt a lot of things about what is appropriate behaviour and what’s not appropriate behaviour.”

One Australian bishop’s monstrously banal response to 26 suicides attributed to priestly abuse.

Following Kenny speech, Vatican withdraws envoy from Ireland

A nation with an 87 percent Catholic population no longer has an ambassador to Rome. Via Irish Times: The Vatican has recalled its envoy to Ireland following Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s trenchant criticism of the Holy See’s role in covering up cases of clerical child sex abuse. Deputy Vatican spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini said Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, [...]

Vatican obstructed abuse investigations as late as 2007

Via the Irish Times: [Roman Catholic parliamentarian and leader of the conservative-Christian democratic Fine Gael party] Taoiseach Enda Kenny today told the Dáil the Cloyne report exposed an attempt by the Holy See to frustrate the inquiry into clerical sex abuse. Addressing the House, Mr Kenny said: “The rape and torture of children were downplayed or [...]

Brooklyn bishop bans donations, speaking engagements by lawmakers who voted for NY same-sex marriage

Via Christian Post: Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has asked all Catholic churches and schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn to ban state lawmakers who voted for gay marriage in New York. DiMarzio, the leader of the Brooklyn diocese, has urged the Catholic institutions to decline donations and speaking engagements from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and any lawmaker [...]

Priest served on board of Dutch NAMBLA-like group

Via the reliably yellow Daily Fail Mail, so take it with a grain of salt: The Dutch Catholic Church and the Salesian order are investigating revelations that a Salesian priest served on the board of a group that promotes paedophilia with the full knowledge of his boss. The order’s top official in the Netherlands, Delegate Herman [...]

Priest from parish of pope’s advisor on child abuse arrested for child abuse

Via Time: The latest sex-abuse case to rock the Catholic Church is unfolding in the archdiocese of an influential Italian Cardinal who has been working with Pope Benedict XVI on reforms to respond to prior scandals of pedophile priests. Father Riccardo Seppia, a 51-year-old parish priest in the village of Sastri Ponente, near Genoa, was [...]

Milwaukee Archdiocese (again) accussed of moving funds to put off abuse victim payments

Via Rick Romell of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the committee representing its unsecured creditors agreed Tuesday to postpone arguments over proposed payments to 22 sex-abuse victims who settled with the archdiocese before it filed for bankruptcy protection in January. The archdiocese wants court approval to pay the victims a total [...]

After promising it wouldn’t, Catholich Church opposes abolition of CT stature of limitations in sex abuse cases

Via Mary E. O’Leary of the New Haven Register: Despite saying last year that it had no objection to a bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations on the sexual abuse of minors going forward, a representative of the Catholic Church Monday at a public hearing said it could not agree with the concept. [...]

Marquette University president accused of covering up sex abuse

As an alumnus of MU as of last May, this is absolutely flooring. At the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if the allegations were true. Via WISN: Marquette University’s president is accused of protecting one of the nation’s most notorious predator priests. The allegations are part of a pending lawsuit against the Rev. Donald McGuire and [...]

Northwest Jesuits will pay $166 million in abuse settlement

Via Oregon Live: The Northwest’s Jesuits and their insurers have agreed to pay $166.1 million in a bankruptcy settlement aimed at compensating nearly 500 people with active claims of sexual abuse by priests.  The payout is one of the largest ever made by a religious organization in the United States to abuse victims. The settlement, [...]