In June, the National Catholic Committee on Scouting announced it has a new name: Catholic Scouting America. While the original name will remain the same for legal purposes, the new public name is meant to both clarify and strengthen the organization’s 100-plus-year commitment to faith, family and adventure through the values-based lessons of Scouting — all grounded in the Catholic faith. Catholic Scouting America is a partner with Scouting America — known as Boy Scouts of America until May 2024 — so boys and girls in Catholic Scouting have access to the activities, programs, and resources that have shaped generations...

Two priests long affiliated with the University of Notre Dame groomed and sexually abused young men at the storied Catholic college and elsewhere over many years dating to the 1980s. And the clerics — both with ties to the Chicago area — were allowed to stay in ministry long after church and school officials were said to have been aware of some of the potential misconduct. Those are the central takeaways from interviews with the Chicago Sun-Times and a recently released report commissioned by Notre Dame detailing accusations of sexual misconduct by the Rev. Thomas King, who is...

The Catholic church is once again being buried in child sex abuse accusations across California. More than 4,000 people are suing Catholic institutions across the state, enabled by a recent law that opened a window for survivors to sue their alleged abusers, no matter how far back their accusations go. Hundreds of Northern California priests are being accused for the first time, including some still working in churches and schools today. NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit dug through the new claims, which suggest the decades-long scandal could go far deeper than the public previously knew.

The San Francisco Archdiocese has agreed to pay $395 million and implement a series of child protection and transparency reforms to settle hundreds of lawsuits brought by survivors who say they were sexually abused by clergy and other church employees as children. The agreement, announced Monday by plaintiffs’ attorneys and the Archdiocese, would resolve roughly 530 claims filed after California temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse lawsuits and comes nearly three years after the Archdiocese sought bankruptcy protection. ----------- Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone must turn over internal...

An $800 million proposal from the Archdiocese of New York to settle more than 1,000 claims of clergy sex abuse is a step towards accountability but an imperfect resolution for the church's victims, said one accuser and several plaintiff advocates. The archdiocesan settlement, which the recently appointed Archbishop Ronald Hicks described as the culmination of "several months" of negotiations between the church and plaintiff representatives, comes amid a bitter, yearslong legal dispute pitting the archdiocese against its longtime insurer Chubb, which has refused to pay compensation to accusers and accused church leaders of intentionally enabling and concealing sexual abuse...

Attorneys and other professionals who worked on the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy case racked up roughly $60 million in fees and expenses over nearly six years, court documents show, making the case the second-costliest of more than 40 church bankruptcies filed in the U.S. over the past two decades. The figures were disclosed in final fee applications filed in late February, two months after the archdiocese and its affiliated parishes and charities reached a $300 million settlement with hundreds of survivors of clergy sex abuse. Attorneys and other professionals who worked on the Archdiocese of New Orleans...

More than 170 people are filing suit against local councils of the Boy Scouts of America in Maryland for childhood sexual abuse. The cases flooded in last week against the Baltimore Area Council, the National Capital Area Council, the Del-Mar-Va Council, Laurel Highlands Council, Mason-Dixion Council and Chester County Council. Councils fall under the larger umbrella of the Boy Scouts of America and are largely run by volunteers. The Councils being sued represent areas from western Maryland to the eastern shore. The survivors allege sexual assault by scout leaders or personnel. The lawsuits do not include...

Maine’s highest court on Tuesday ruled against a law that removed the statute of limitations for civil claims about child sexual abuse. Lawmakers in the state approved the law in 2021, and it was later challenged by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland. The diocese has received many lawsuits alleging long-ago abuse by priests. Lawyers for the diocese told the Maine Supreme Judicial Court during arguments that they felt the removal of time limits was unconstitutional. An attorney representing plaintiffs defended the law as a way to prevent past abuses from being swept away.

Multiple survivors pressed Cordileone for more transparency from the church and a speedy resolution to the bankruptcy case, which the archbishop responded to in his statement. “Several survivors in these listening sessions asked that we do everything in our power to accelerate the Chapter 11 process to help them achieve some level of closure,” Cordileone wrote. “I agree with their perspective. We have worked diligently toward transparency and a timely resolution in collaboration with the other parties involved in this bankruptcy process, and I hope that by doing so we will be able to fulfill this desire of theirs.”...

Thomas Finnerty is suing St. Mary’s Seminary and the Associated Sulpicians who run it, alleging child sexual abuse over years by a seminarian at St. Mary’s. Attorneys Michael Belsky and Catherine Dickinson, of Schlachman, Belsky, Weiner & Davey, P.A., are representing Finnerty. His alleged abuser, who is now dead, went on to be convicted in New Jersey as a priest for sexual offenses against minors.