The Illinois attorney general’s gut-wrenching 696-page report on Catholic clergy child sex abuse in Illinois is illustrated, incongruously but perhaps necessarily, with aspirational images of the Prairie State: cornfields at sunrise, the shimmering waters of Lake Michigan, sunsets over lakes and barns, gorgeous stained glass windows.

But the...Read more

CHICAGO — Hundreds more Catholic clerics abused children in Illinois than were previously reported by church leaders, according to a scathing 700-page report released Tuesday by the Illinois Attorney General’s office following a roughly four-year investigation.

State investigators revealed the names and details of 451 Catholic priests and ...Read more

Hundreds more Catholic clerics abused children in Illinois than were previously reported by church leaders, according to a scathing 700-page report released Tuesday by the Illinois Attorney General’s office following a roughly four-year investigation.

State investigators revealed the names and details of 451 Catholic priests and religious ...Read more

BALTIMORE -- Archdiocese of Baltimore officials, particularly Archbishop William Lori, have responded in recent weeks to a report by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church with interviews, an FAQ and messages to parishioners across Central and Western Maryland.

After a similar report was published ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the waning hours of the legislative session, Missouri lawmakers passed a bill long-sought by a pair of Christian lawmakers that would allow public schools to offer elective courses on the Bible.

The legislation, filed by state Sen. Karla May, a St. Louis Democrat, allows public schools and public charter schools to offer...Read more

The Baltimore Archdiocese insists it’s a changed institution. The rampant sexual abuse of children and accompanying cover-up within the Catholic Church dating back to the 1940s — revealed this spring in a lengthy attorney general’s report that redacted some of the names of the guilty — could not happen today, officials claim. “For ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Monsignor J. Bruce Jarboe, recently identified as one of the high-ranking Catholic clerics cited in an attorney general’s investigation into how the church handled child sex abuse cases, will not transfer to a prominent Towson parish as planned.

Archbishop William Lori told parishioners Friday that instead of moving in July to ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. — The results of an investigation into the reports of a possible miracle at Thomaston’s St. Thomas Church have been sent to the Vatican.

On March 5, the Rev. Joseph Crowley, pastor of St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish, which includes St. Thomas, reported that during Holy Communion a lay person distributing hosts had found that the...Read more

On a shelf in my kitchen sits a pastel-pink coffee cup that appears to be empty. But in my mind, it’s filled to the brim with warm memories.

I can still remember the smile this gracefully decorated gift brought to my late mother’s face on Mother’s Day, her favorite day of the year. She was getting on in years back then — didn’t need a...Read more

Several of the five high-ranking priests who worked to cover up and minimize child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore have celebrated Mass in parishes over the past week and remain on the governing boards of Catholic institutions, despite having their identities revealed and a subsequent call by victims’ advocates for them to step ...Read more

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Roman Catholic Bishop of Oakland announced Monday that the Diocese of Oakland has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in light of about 330 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse under a recent California statute that allowed decades-old cases to be re-opened.

The Catholic schools that operate within the Diocese are part of ...Read more

When Brian P. Hannon finally reported to the Baltimore Archdiocese that as a teenager he had been repeatedly raped by a priest in the rectory of a Catonsville church, one of the officials he met with was the Rev. Bruce Jarboe, now a monsignor.

“He’s the one running the show,” Hannon, now 65, recalled of the meeting about 20 years ago. “...Read more

BALTIMORE — In the fall of 2002, as the country first realized the scope of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, a Baltimore bishop sat in a Carroll County parochial school gym to try and make sense of it all.

Auxiliary Bishop W. Francis Malooly told a group of faithful that it was a mystery to him why priests who the Archdiocese of...Read more

DETROIT — Nearly five dozen Michigan churches plan to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church amid a rift over LGBTQ+ issues that has fractured one of the country's largest Protestant denominations.

Mark Doyal, spokesperson for the Michigan conference of the United Methodist Church, confirmed that as of Monday — the deadline for ...Read more

CHICAGO — The sexual abuse supposedly occurred in 2003 at St. Agatha Catholic Church on Chicago’s West Side.

Accuser “John Doe” claimed in court documents that as a young boy he had been sexually assaulted multiple times during the after-school SAFE program by Daniel McCormack, a defrocked Chicago priest who pleaded guilty in 2007 to ...Read more

Republican lawmakers in Florida are crusaders for religious freedom — until it interferes with riling up the MAGA base. Why else would they criminalize pastoral outreach as a means to attack President Joe Biden on immigration policy?

Legislation proposed by Republican state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia of Spring Hill would toughen work requirements ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia is facing new accusations that it covered-up sexual misconduct, this time involving a former priest who allegedly forced himself on multiple women and told them the unwanted encounters were “special trials” ordained by God.

In court filings this week, a 27-year-old woman said ...Read more

CHICAGO — Last year at the end of Ramadan, Faiza Siddiqui — like millions of Muslims each year — was waiting intently for the moon sighting announcement determining if the next day will be Eid al-Fitr, the holiday after the month of fasting.

Siddiqui, a resident physician at the University of Chicago, refreshed her browser every few ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As a sophomore at Pomona College, Aysha Gsibat remembers rushing to get into the dining hall to grab food to break her fast during the holy month of Ramadan, which involves abstaining from food and water from sunrise until sunset.

She read prayers while waiting for the sun to go down. Alone in her dorm room, Gsibat had iftar, ...Read more