Pope Francis recently completed a tour of three African nations. His visit needs to be understood in the context of the church’s long history in Africa and its modern-day difficulties.
The Pennsylvania grand jury report may have played a role in helping survivors come to grips with their past.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Last year, Pennsylvania’s grand jury report uncovered sexual abuse allegations by over 300 priests. A scholar explains how the report may have helped survivors come to terms with a painful past.
Pope Francis recently made it mandatory for clergy to report sexual abuse to church superiors.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
Pope Francis is trying to address gaps in the regulatory processes of the Catholic Church. But clergy can still decide whether, and to what degree, to share information.
Sri Lankan army soldiers secure the area around St. Anthony’s Shrine after a blast in Colombo.
AP Photo/ Rohan Karunarathne
Suicide bombers struck Sri Lanka’s churches and hotels on Easter Sunday, killing and injuring hundreds of people. Seven percent of Sri Lanka’s population is Christian – most of them Roman Catholics.
Activists hold demonstrating against the church’s sacking of priests over alleged homosexuality.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Pope Francis has discouraged homosexual men from entering priesthood. Prior to the 12th century, even celebrated priests could write about same-sex desires and the church paid little attention.
A group of millennials are working to bring Catholic religious practice to American college campuses.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
Many young Catholics are moving away from their faith and joining the growing number of the religiously unaffiliated. The missionary group FOCUS is evangelizing on campuses, though there are concerns.
The Vatican will open its archives on Pope Pius XII next year. An expert explains the papacy of Pope Pius XII and the fear of communism confronting much of the Western world at the time.
Margareta, head of the women’s community at Lippoldsberg (in modern-day Germany) clasps hands with an Augustinian monk as he hands her a book.
Lippoldsberg Evangeliary. Kassel, Landesbibliothek, MS theol. 2o 59, f. 73v.
Pope Francis recently confirmed that clergy members abused nuns. Since the early days of monasticism, the presence of nuns led to restrictions that limited contact between men and women.
Cardinal Pell is the most senior Catholic cleric to be charged with child sex abuse.
AP Photo/Andy Brownbill
While Pope Francis has publicly acknowledged sexual abuse by clergy, the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church still makes it difficult to report and address cases of abuse.
A recent summit held by Pope Francis on preventing sexual abuse in the church has been criticised for being short on action.
AAP/EPA/Giuseppe Lami
Australian Catholics are drifting from the church, and research shows sexual abuse scandals are a main reason why.
Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington D.C., prays during the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2011.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File
In the Catholic understanding, priesthood is not simply a job that a someone can be fired from. Ordination is a deeply spiritual ceremony that is believed to transfer the power of the Holy Spirit.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests protest against clergy sex abuse in Los Angeles in 2010.
AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
The Catholic survivor movement in the United States was founded by two women: Jeanne Miller and Marilyn Steffel, in the late 1980s. It has taken close to 30 years for the Vatican to take action.
Pope Francis has finally, and for the first time, admitted the Church has a problem with priests sexually abusing nuns.
ANGELO CARCONI/AAP
Twenty-five years ago, an Irish nun handed a report to the Catholic Church that detailed sexual abuse against nuns by priests worldwide. It was ignored. But now nuns are finally sharing their stories.
Pope Francis sits during the traditional greetings to the Roman Curia at the Vatican in December 2018.
Filippo Monteforte/Pool Photo via AP
Pope Francis is meeting bishops for a global summit to discuss sexual abuse by clergy. Such a response, says an expert, is part of a past pattern, unlikely to bring a lasting change.
Sculpture of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, on the campus of Boston College.
Jay Yuan/Shutterstock.com
At times we just don’t know what’s the right thing to do. St. Ignatius, who founded the Society of Jesus, developed a method of discernment that can be useful even to those who are not religious.
Pope Francis speaking to cardinals Dec. 21, 2018 at the Vatican.
Filippo Monteforte/AP Pool
Sex abuse by Catholic priests may be as devastating in many cases as sex abuse by a family member because of institutional betrayal, two trauma psychologists write. It calls for special measures.
There is rich Catholic heritage of resistance. Catholic protesters have used powerful religious symbols, including vials of their own blood, as an extension of Christ’s blood, to demand change.
Clergy sex abuse was among the biggest religion stories of 2018. In this photo, a demonstrator holds up a protest sign at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma
For scholars, researching the Catholic Church can mean a laborious process involving several years. And talking to survivors of clergy sex abuse can carry its own pain and personal toll.
Professor of Management & Organizations; Professor of Environment & Sustainability; Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the Ross School of Business and School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan