How Investigating Abuse Might Win an Oscar and Fix the Economy
Spotlight is that rare film that deals with both the worst of people and the best of people and lets us know that we hold the keys to the solution for so many of our problems.
Priest Abuse
Stories of the ongoing scandal of priest abuse. Resources for battling the epidemic. Join the fight to end priest abuse.
While We’re Young, Pope Francis: Waiting for Real Action on Priest Abuse
Time is ticking away since the June formation of the Pope Francis’ tribunal on bishops who sheltered abusive priests. Time to press for real action on priest abuse from the Vatican.
Exposing the Priest Abuse Scandal: Huffington Post Live interview – UPDATE
Unique view of the Priest Abuse Scandal today on HuffPostLive: former nun and abuse survivor Mary Dispenza, and Mary Pflum Peterson, child of an abused nun.
Angry at the Catholic Church
The Language of Righting Wrongs The other night at my Spanish class I saw a woman I knew, but I couldn’t remember where I’d met her. So I introduced myself and we did that thing where you both list all your affiliations and social activities, looking for anything that connects. One of the activities I … Read more
2 Major Churches, 1 Massive Problem: Pedophile Priests
Archbishop of Canterbury says he deals with sex abuse issues ‘on a daily basis’ From The Independent: Disgraced vicars convicted of child sex attacks have abused their former Church titles by posing as respected members of society, victims claimed last night, after the Archbishop of Canterbury warned that new cases of abuse by clergy were … Read more
Wake Up Vatican: The Scandal of Sexual Abuse by Priests is Far From Over
Once again the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has loudly and clearly insisted that the Vatican and Pope Francis remove all priest child abusers and report them to local law enforcement. The committee further insisted the Vatican open all associated records so that Bishops and other church officials who have contributed … Read more
Cardinal Mahony, still covering up abuse
A recent series of articles about Cardinal Roger Mahony in the LA Times drew a strong response from readers. So strong in fact, that the response itself was deemed worthy of a follow up article on reader feelings about Mahony. My letter to the editor was one of five quoted in the follow up piece. … Read more
Jerry Brown, SB 131 and the Statute of Limitations on Childhood Sex Abuse
Jerry Brown and Me I’ve always had a lot of respect for Jerry Brown, starting back before he was Governor and I was a hippie nun. Governor Brown has more political smarts than I, but I have a keener understanding of the effects of childhood priest abuse than he. We’ve lived very different realities. Our … Read more
The Healing Power of a Letter to the Editor
The Power of Bearing Witness Over the years, as I’ve come to grips with the things that happened to me as a child, I’ve learned to take my responsibility to tell the truth about the church and abuse very seriously. In religious circles it’s often called bearing witness. Though usually that term is reserved for … Read more
Does celibacy cause priests to abuse?
From Today’s Irish Independent: “Nobody within the official church has looked at the deeper issues and seriously asked the question why so many priests and religious did these things, because it raises fundamental questions about the lifestyle of priests.” “Can they say with any degree of definiteness that the fact that so many priests abused … Read more