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The head of the Catholic Church in West Virginia — who was expelled over sex harassment allegations — spent millions on luxury travel and doled out lavish gifts to fellow clergy, a report said Wednesday. Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, 75, showered $350,000 in gifts to others in the church — including some he is accused of abusing and one archbishop who was overseeing a probe into his conduct, according to The Washington Post. “Everybody’s trying to destroy my reputation,” Bransfield told the paper when asked about the allegations. “These people are terrible to me.” It wasn’t clear what people Bransfield...

NEWARK, New Jersey -- The Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, has released a list of 63 Roman Catholic clergy members they say have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors dating to 1940. New Jersey's four other dioceses are also expected to release names soon of clergy suspected of abusing minors. Newark's list includes Theodore McCarrick, a former Newark archbishop who served as Washington, D.C., archbishop from 2000 to 2006. McCarrick was removed from public ministry last June.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania, using subpoenas to demand secret files and testimony from high-ranking leaders in what victims’ advocates say is the first such probe ever launched by the U.S. Justice Department.

The Jesuit tapped by Pope Francis to serve as the Vatican’s top clergy sex abuse prosecutor failed to remove an abusive priest from ministry even after learning about that priest’s long record, The Boston Globe reported today. As the second-highest official with the Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s, the Rev. Robert J. Geisinger, SJ, was privy to documents chronicling the abuse of Rev. Donald J. McGuire, SJ, whom the Globe describes as “a globe-trotting priest with many influential supporters, including Mother Teresa of Calcutta.” A review of Church records by the Globe’s Michael Rezendes shows that Geisinger had knowledge of...

Asking for forgiveness, Pope Francis told abuse survivors that “despicable actions” caused by clergy have been hidden for too long and had been “camouflaged with a complicity that cannot be explained.” “There is no place in the church’s ministry for those who commit these abuses, and I commit myself not to tolerate harm done to a minor by any individual, whether a cleric or not,” and to hold all bishops accountable for protecting young people, the pope said during a special early morning Mass for six survivors of abuse by clergy. The Mass and private meetings held later with each...

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins...

Diocese ex-CFO to get same job in Columbus COLUMBUS (OH) Cleveland Plain Dealer Friday, August 20, 2004 James F. McCarty Plain Dealer Reporter The deposed chief financial officer of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese has a new job as the next CFO of the Diocese of Columbus. Joseph Smith resigned from the Cleveland diocese in January under a cloud of suspicion, accused of accepting more than $750,000 from an accounting firm he had hired to work for the diocese. The FBI is investigating the payments, and the diocese's insurance company reportedly has filed a claim against Smith to recoup the money...

Raymond Arroyo of The World Over Live is conducting this forum live at Catholic University