News & Views

In 1991, Msgr. William J. Lynn wrote a memo outlining his interview with a man who said he had been molested by the Rev. Michael McCarthy, a longtime teacher at Cardinal O’Hara. But Lynn made a mistake, at least in the eyes of his boss at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Lynn had told the accuser that his was not the first complaint against McCarthy. “Unnecessary statement,” the Rev. James E. Molloy, then the assistant vicar for administration scrawled in the margins of the memo. “Never admit to victims that there are other cases.”   Both sides highlighted the note Tuesday for jur...

A telegenic American priest, widely known for his media commentary from Rome on popes, prayer and personal morality, has publicly acknowledged having an affair and fathering a child — the latest jolt to hit his scandal-torn religious order, the Legionaries of Christ.   The priest, the Rev. Thomas D. Williams, apologized in a statement on Tuesday “for this grave transgression” and “to everyone who is hurt by this revelation.” He said he would take a year off from public ministry to reflect on his transgressions and his “commitments as a priest” — a decision he said he made with his supe...

AMERICAN prosecutors are considering legal action against the Los Angeles Catholic Church – following a Sunday Mercury exclusive proving bishops knew a paedophile priest shipped to the States had a shameful past. Last week the Mercury revealed how Birmingham church leaders already knew Father James Robinson had an unwholesome realtionship with a man 25 years BEFORE he was jailed for 21 counts of sex abuse on boys. Predatory priest Robinson, who worked at several churches in Coventry and Birmingham, fled to the US in 1985, days after the police were first alerted by a victim who had been ...

The Vatican is reported to be investigating seven priests of the Legion of Christ order in connection with allegations of child abuse.In a statement to the AP news agency, the Mexican order said seven cases had been referred to the Vatican's department that deals with sex crimes.The Legion of Christ's founder, Marcial Maciel, sexually abused many boys and young men over a period of 30 years.He was disciplined by the Vatican in 2006 over the abuse.One of the cases being investigated in relation to the seven priests is recent, while others date back several decades, the order said in the stateme...

My column calling for Cardinal Sean Brady to resign from his post as Primate of All Ireland has prompted a great deal of discussion, in particular from the distinguished commentator William Oddie in this week’s Catholic Herald, in which he suggests that my words exemplify a mood that “may well be nearer to the phenomenon we call today a 'witch hunt' than to a common understanding based on an equitable understanding of the reality of the situation.” Since my comprehension of a “witch hunt” is that it is a highly public effort to uncover wrongdoing, but one based on flimsy or negligible evidenc...