In a response provided to The Associated Press, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops defended its anti-abuse efforts, which church officials say have helped reduce abuse allegations since 2002 to numbers far lower than several decades ago.
Jeff Anderson, a lawyer representing people who say they were abused by clergy in the Rockville Centre Diocese, slammed the bankruptcy filing as “strategic, cowardly and wholly self-serving."
Father Zollner said the working group he belongs to, on education and formation, talked about the four webinars on safeguarding that were held over the summer and sponsored by the women's International Union of Superiors General.
The sexual abuse trial of Piero Alfio Capuana, the lay leader of the 5,000-member Catholic Culture and Environment Association, began in this small Sicilian city on Tuesday (Sept. 15), three years after the abuse allegedly took place.