French Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, former head of the French bishops’ conference, admitted to abusing a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago

“Even if you leave the ordination question aside for a moment, there is still a great need to explore ways of engaging women in all other levels of the life of the church in significant roles. There is still a lot of work to be done.”

Under the agreement, filed Oct. 25 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the diocese is required to implement enhanced child protection measures.

A new true-crime documentary series on Netflix, “Vatican Girl,” tells the story of the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old girl who is still the only Vatican citizen considered missing.

A new study on the well-being of U.S. Catholic priests found that most support a zero-tolerance policy against child sex abuse but do not trust that their bishop would support them in the face of a false allegation.

A Catholic priest who gained national fame as an activist has been asked to step away from his ministry while allegations that he sexually abused a minor decades ago are investigated.