Free Republic

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) -- Pope Francis acknowledged Saturday that the Vatican has a 2,000-case backlog in processing clerical sex abuse cases and says criticism of the slow pace was justified. But he says more staff are being added and insists the Vatican is "on the right path." Francis was making his first comments about the criticism leveled at the Vatican's handling of sex abuse cases by Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor who resigned from Francis' sex abuse advisory commission in March. Collins quit because of what she said was the "unacceptable" level of resistance within the Vatican...

BOSTON — The Boston priest who informed Archbishop Sean O’Malley that he would not implement the mandated "Talking about Touching" program in his parish told The Wanderer the archbishop "is not committed" to implementing the program in all archdiocesan parishes, that the program is currently "under study" by archdiocesan officials, and "there is no way the archbishop will approve it." (See The Wanderer, October 16, 2003, p. 1.) Fr. David Mullen, pastor of St. Brendan’s Church in Bellingham, Mass., spoke with The Wanderer five days after appearing on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor, where he spoke of his decision to ignore...