Catholic News Service

Australia's Catholic bishops and religious orders, responding to recommendations from the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, accepted 98 percent of its suggestions, but said they could not accept recommendations that would violate the seal of confession.

Scheduled to respond to a Pennsylvania grand jury report that hundreds of priests were accused of the sexual abuse of children and seminarians, a prayer service in Metuchen, N.J., drew people from throughout the diocese for exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, prayer, song and reflection.

Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis said Aug. 23 he has invited Missouri's attorney general to conduct a review of the archdiocese with regard to clergy sexual abuse.

Priests and bishops from the Province of Atlanta recently spent time considering the abuse crisis in the church, how to respond to it and how to best carry on in serving the faithful.

In an Aug. 30 letter to priests in the archdiocese, Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl asked for "forgiveness for my errors in judgment [and] for my inadequacies."

The Archdiocese of San Juan filed for bankruptcy protection Aug. 29 over unpaid teacher pensions.

The Catholic Church in Bosnia-Herzegovina has urged the country to improve human rights and political representation after upcoming elections, 23 years after the country was divided by a bloody war.

While recent accusations by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò have created tension in the Catholic Church, Pope Francis is approaching the situation calmly, the Vatican secretary of state said.

After recent reports describing clergy sex abuse, Paul Peloquin, a Catholic clinical psychologist and a clergy abuse survivor, shared advice for victims and their families.

While procedures are being put in place for Syrians to return to their war-torn country from neighboring Lebanon, the refugee crisis continues to linger and remains largely unchanged, a Caritas Lebanon official said.

Catholic churches and homes in southern Oregon are safe so far amid wildfires, but persistent smoke has suppressed activities — and spirits.

Catholics in the pews and even priests in the Vatican are confused about the long document Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano published claiming Pope Francis turned a blind eye to information he had about the sexual misconduct of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick.

While the faith of Catholics in Ireland is strong, the scandal of abuse and cover-up by church leaders has caused a decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life, Pope Francis said.

The Catholic Church in Latin America must return to the principles of a 1968 conference that shifted the church's emphasis toward the poor majority, said participants in a four-day meeting in Medellin, Colombia.

An independent lay-run board that would hold bishops accountable for their actions, a national day for Mass or prayers of reparation, and encouragement to parishioners to become more involved in their diocese are among steps suggested by prominent lay Catholics to right the U.S. church as it deals with a new clergy sexual abuse scandal.

As the sun set Aug. 20, about 120 Catholics gathered on the steps of the Cathedral of St. Paul to pray for survivors of clergy sexual abuse and for a cleansing of the Catholic Church.

Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York, said that even though his efforts in handling sex abuse claims in the diocese seem to have "fallen short," he would not resign despite being asked to do so by several local leaders, including Catholics.

More committees are not the answer to stop the abuse of children and vulnerable adults by clergy, said an Aug. 28 statement by the National Review Board, which is charged with addressing clerical sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church.

After years of Catholics having to confess their sins to the clergy, it is now time for priests and bishops "to come clean about what they have done and what they have failed to do," the CEO of the Knights of Columbus said in a letter to his brother Knights and the organization's chaplains.

Bishops across the United States are offering apologies to victims, and renewed resolve to Catholics, in the wake of the Aug. 14 Pennsylvania grand jury report that detailed claims of sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children over 70 years in six dioceses in the state.