By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY — Asking for forgiveness, Pope Francis told abuse survivors that “despicable actions” caused by clergy have been hidden for too long and had been “camouflaged with a complicity that cannot be explained.”

By Catholic News Service  WASHINGTON (CNS) — The number of allegations of sexual abuse by clergy declined in 2013 while diocesan spending on child protection programs increased under the U.S. Catholic Church’s “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” according to a church-sponsored audit.

Press Release Archdiocese of Cincinnati  The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has acted on the cases of two priests of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati accused of child abuse, removing Daniel Pater from ministry permanently and restoring Fater David F. Reilly to active ministry.

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child continued to insist that the Vatican compile and publish detailed statistics on clerical sexual abuse of minors and that the pope, as head of the church, can and should order Catholic dioceses …

By Catholic News Service  NEW YORK (CNS) — The International Criminal Court declined a request from victims of clergy sexual abuse to investigate Vatican officials and their responsibility for the abuse of children by Catholic priests around the world.

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis reaffirmed the importance of responding decisively to the problem of the sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy and called on the Vatican office dealing with suspected cases to continue carrying out its mandate. During an …

Facing allegations of inappropriate relationships and conduct with several priests in the 1980s, Cardinal Keith O’Brien has announced that he sent his resignation in to Pope Benedict XVI some months ago as a result of “indifferent health.” USA Today reports that the 75-year-old Cardinal O’Brien is the leader of the Roman …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service  ROME (CNS) — The Catholic Church’s efforts to prevent clerical sexual abuse and protect children around the world will be “a long-term effort,” said Father Robert W. Oliver, a Boston priest who began work Feb. 1 as the promoter of justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine …