vatican

AP Exclusive: Vatican details US sex abuse defense

May 19, 2010

Vatican suit details Wis. abuse

The case of a Wisconsin priest accused of preying on boys at a school for the deaf was presented to the Vatican by one of the victims a year earlier than previously thought, according to documents revealed Thursday in another lawsuit aimed at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church.

April 30, 2010

Irish bishop resigns in Vatican move against abuse

April 22, 2010

Pope defended at Easter Mass

It was the Catholic calendar’s holiest moment — the Mass celebrating the resurrection of Christ. But with Pope Benedict XVI accused of failing to protect children from abusive priests, Easter Sunday also was a high-profile opportunity to play defense.

By By Frances D’Emilio, The Associated Press , April 05, 2010

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Pope’s preacher: Accusations akin to anti-Semitism

At a solemn Good Friday service, Pope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher likened the tide of allegations that the pontiff has covered up sex abuse cases to the “more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.” But within hours, facing a storm of criticism at the comparison, the Vatican felt it necessary to distance the pope from the preacher’s remarks.

By By Frances D’Emilio, The Associated Press , April 03, 2010

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Vatican axed trial of accused priest

The Vatican on Thursday strongly defended its decision not to defrock an American priest accused of molesting some 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin and denounced what it called a campaign to smear Pope Benedict XVI and his aides. Church and Vatican documents showed that in the mid-1990s, two Wisconsin bishops urged the Vatican office led by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now the pope — to let them hold a church trial against the Rev. Lawrence Murphy. The bishops admitted the trial was coming years after the alleged abuse, but argued that the deaf community in Milwaukee was demanding justice from the church.

By By Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press , March 26, 2010

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Vatican to Irish bishops: Admit blame in abuse

A top Vatican prelate told Irish bishops at an extraordinary Vatican summit with Pope Benedict XVI Monday they must admit their own blame in cover-ups of generations of sex abuse of minors, or risk losing the faith of Ireland’s Catholics. But the former Dublin altar boy who helped expose the scandal doubted that any real hierarchy housekeeping would result from the two days of talks behind closed doors in the Apostolic Palace.

February 19, 2010

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Vatican seeks to clarify review of U.S. sisters

The Vatican defended its review of U.S. women’s religious orders on Tuesday amid criticism from the sisters that the process is secretive and amounts to a crackdown.

November 06, 2009

Vatican: Talks with traditionalists to continue

Pope Benedict XVI’s efforts to unify the Catholic Church and reach out to Christian traditionalists took a new step Monday with the start of talks between the Vatican and a group of breakaway Catholics that includes a Holocaust denier.

October 30, 2009

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Catholic sisters queried on doctrine

A Vatican-ordered in-vestigation into Roman Catholic sisters in the U.S., shrouded in mystery when it was announced seven months ago, is shaping up to be a tough examination of whether women’s religious communities have strayed too far from church teaching. The review “is intended as a constructive assessment and an expression of genuine concern for the quality of the life” of roughly 59,000 U.S. Catholic sisters, according to a Vatican working paper delivered in the past few days to leaders of 341 religious congregations that describes the scope in new detail.

By By Eric Gorski, The Associated Press , August 07, 2009

Vatican: Conservative group’s ordinations illicit

Priest ordinations planned by an ultraconservative group won’t be legitimate even though Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunications of the organization’s leaders, the Vatican said last month.

July 24, 2009

Vatican plays down controversies before trip

The Vatican’s representative to the Holy Land on Monday played down the controversies that could mar next week’s visit by Pope Benedict XVI: the conduct of a wartime predecessor and the church’s perceived lenience toward a Holocaust-denying priest. Benedict’s remarks a-bout Muslims have stirred anger in the Arab world, as well.

May 08, 2009

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Pope: Vatican erred in Holocaust case

Pope Benedict XVI made an unusual public acknowledgment of Vatican mistakes and turmoil in his church over an outreach to ultraconservatives that led to his lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop.

May 01, 2009

Vatican orders review of women’s religious orders

The Vatican has begun a first-ever comprehensive study of women’s religious orders in the United States, four decades into a steep decline in the number of Roman Catholic sisters and nuns in the country. The study, ordered by a Vatican congregation in December and announced Friday in Washington, will examine “the quality of the life” of 59,000 members in more than 400 Catholic women’s religious institutes, said Sister Eva-Maria Ackerman, a spokeswoman for the study, which is called an apostolic visitation.

By By Eric Gorski , The Associated Press , February 06, 2009

Vatican secret confession tribunal opens up

One of the Vatican’s most secrecy- shrouded tribunals, which handles confessions of sins so grave only the pope can grant absolution, is giving the faithful a peek into its workings for the first time in its 830-year history.

January 16, 2009

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