In a move branded "breathtaking arrogance" by a watchdog group, the Archdiocese of Newark has appointed a priest -- who once confessed to touching an ...

ROME — Priests who rape and molest children lie when confronted with an accusation but victims usually tell the truth, psychologists told Cathol...

PHILADELPHIA — Prosecutors on Monday accused the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of being an "unindicted co-conspirator" in a clergy sex abuse case ...

A new report argues the high incidence of sexual abuse by priests in the 1960s reflected the growing aberrance of American society during that period, including "an increase in premarital sexual behavior and divorce." Are they serious?

From the late 1800s until the 1970s, the federal government compelled Native parents nationwide to send their children to boarding schools designed to assimilate them.

What ex-students describe as rampant sexual abuse in South Dakota's half-dozen boarding schools occurred against a backdrop of extreme violence.

By Francis X. Rocca Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI deplored the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and linked i...

By Francis X. Rocca Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican's top spokesman appealed to victims of pedophile priests who demonstrated...

The world -- and the molested -- have been waiting, waiting for the Catholic Church's hierarchy to do the right thing in these months of crisis. Sadly, the wait will be longer.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Breaking his silence as an international clergy sex abuse scandal has roiled the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday (Ap...

VATICAN CITY (RNS) A day after the Vatican's No. 2 official suggested a link between pedophilia and homosexuality, the pope's top spokesman issued a c...

There were clearly some gay priests who were attracted to adolescent boys, and who preyed on them. But not the vast majority of gay priests, who never abused anyone. This is a critical point.

The Catholic Church might be terrible at crisis management and the pope may not be perfect. But what might emerge from this dark episode is a more transparent, more accessible, and more sensitive Church.

Celibacy does not cause pedophilia. But that hasn't stopped otherwise thoughtful pundits and commentators, and among them even some Catholics, from opining on celibacy as a cause of the crisis.