Pope Francis was the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit pontiff and the first to take the name of Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi.

Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church’s teaching in areas such as the death penalty and nuclear weapons.

Disgraced former Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has died.

A Massachusetts judge has ruled that a once-powerful Roman Catholic cardinal is not competent to stand trial on charges he sexually assaulted a teenage boy decades ago.

A prosecution expert says a former Roman Catholic cardinal is not competent to stand trial on charges that he sexually assaulted a teenage boy in Massachusetts decades ago.

Lawyers for former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick are asking a judge to dismiss a case charging him with sexually assaulting a boy decades ago, saying the 92-year-old once-powerful American prelate has dementia and is not competent to stand trial.

The United Nations and advocacy groups for survivors of clergy sexual abuse are urging Pope Francis to authorize a full investigation into Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo.

An activist says former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's court appearance in a sex abuse case marks a new phase in the global struggle to hold clerics accountable.

Disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy during a wedding reception in Massachusetts in 1974.

Pope Francis has changed Catholic Church law to explicitly criminalize the sexual abuse of adults by priests who abuse their authority.

Pope Francis set a 40-euro ($48) gift cap for all Vatican employees in one of his biggest efforts yet to crack down on corruption in the Holy See.

FILE - In this March 4, 2015, file photo, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick speaks during a memorial service in South Bend, Ind. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, where McCarrick served as archbishop from the mid-1980s until 2000. McCarrick was defrocked in 2019 after an investigation substantiated allegations of sexual abuse against him. Three of the plaintiffs were parishioners who allege McCarrick abused them as youths in the 1980s. An email message was left after hours Thursday with a spokesperson for the Vatican in Rome.

U.S. Catholic bishops are holding their annual fall assembly virtually this week with the Vatican's recent report on the rise and fall of disgraced ex-Cardinal McCarrick one of their main topics for discussion. Released last week after a two-year investigation, the report found that three decades of bishops, cardinals, and popes dismissed or downplayed reports McCarrick shared his bed with seminarians. Released last week after a two-year investigation, the report found that three decades of bishops, cardinals and popes dismissed or downplayed reports McCarrick shared his bed with seminarians. Pope Francis defrocked McCarrick last year after a Vatican investigation determined he sexually abused children and adults. Instead, the Vatican’s bishops office urged McCarrick to keep a low profile and minimize his travel.

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)RICHMOND, Va. – Men who have come forward with allegations of abuse by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick expressed disgust, frustration and outrage after an internal Vatican report outlined what was known about the clergyman's behavior — and what was ignored. McCarrick was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after a separate Vatican investigation determined he sexually abused minors as well as adults. An attorney for McCarrick, who now lives as a layman in a residence for priests, declined to comment on the report. As pontiff, John Paul appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 2000, despite having commissioned an inquiry that confirmed he slept with seminarians, according to the report. SNAP and another organization that represents survivors, Ending Clergy Abuse, called on President-elect Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic, to assist their efforts.

(AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino, File)The Vatican’s report on ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick revealed the previously unknown contents of six anonymous letters accusing him of pedophilia that were sent to U.S. church leaders in the early 1990s and later forwarded to the Holy See. The Vatican has long ignored anonymous reports about abuse, insisting on receiving signed complaints before initiating any investigation. O’Connor sent a copy to McCarrick, according to the report, with a handwritten note: “This stuff drives me crazy. ___That was the last of the anonymous letters, according to the Vatican report, and there is no record of other, similar messages at that time. “Given the prior exemplary reports of Archbishop McCarrick’s moral fitness from ecclesiastical sources and the absence of named complaints ... the anonymous letters appear to have been viewed as libelous attacks made for improper political or personal motives," the Vatican report concluded.

The summary says John Paul naively believed McCarrick’s last-ditch, handwritten denial. “Pope Francis had heard only that there had been allegations and rumors related to immoral conduct with adults occurring prior to McCarrick’s appointment to Washington,” the summary says. While the summary provided new details about what the Vatican knew and when, it didn’t elaborate on the internal culture that allowed McCarrick’s behavior to continue unchecked. The report drew on documents from five Vatican departments, four U.S. dioceses, two U.S. seminaries and the Vatican’s U.S. embassy. Investigators interviewed 90 people, including McCarrick’s victims, former seminarians and priests, officials from U.S. charities and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

PARIS – The Vatican’s former ambassador to France goes on trial Tuesday for alleged sexual misconduct. Exceptionally, the Vatican last year lifted the ambassador’s diplomatic immunity, allowing for his trial and for the allegations to be properly investigated. He filed a police report in Paris in 2019 accusing Ventura of touching his buttocks repeatedly during a reception at Paris City Hall. The Vatican recalled Ventura last year and he later retired. The Vatican has previously recalled its diplomats when they get into trouble during overseas postings, as is common for governments with diplomats serving abroad.

The Vatican on Tuesday will release its long-awaited report into what it knew about ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarricks sexual misconduct during his rise through the church hierarchy. But beyond that, the McCarrick case has forced the Vatican to acknowledge that adults can be victims of sexual abuse, too. Here is what we know about the McCarrick case ahead of the release of the Vatican report:___WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? McCarrick, 90, was defrocked last year after the Vatican determined he sexually abused adults and children, including during confession. ___This story has been corrected to show that the last name of the former McCarrick aide is Figueiredo, not Figueriredo.

In the latest annual report on clerical sex abuse, dioceses and other Catholic entities reported paying out $281.6 million during the year for costs related to allegations, including payments for cases reported in previous years. There has been a huge overall surge in allegations over the past three years as dioceses faced unprecedented pressure to address the decades-old problem of clergy sex abuse. It is the 17th abuse report issued since 2002, when the U.S. bishops established and adopted a comprehensive set of procedures to address sex abuse allegations. Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which advocates for survivors of clergy sex abuse, expressed concern about a section of the report indicating that only 60% of parishes nationwide were performing safety audits on their own. Every single sitting attorney general should be investigating cases of clergy abuse in their state, identifying enablers and removing them from power, and ensuring that hidden abusers are made known to their communities.