Fewer than a third of U.S. Catholics rate the honesty and ethical standards of clergy as "very high" or "high."

Few would deny that 2018 was an annus horribilis for the Catholic Church in the United States. As dioceses and religious orders released the names of alleged sex abusers, it became clear the scope of the scandals was far wider than most imagined or acknowledged.

Lawmakers voted late Jan. 3 to keep Jesuit Father Patrick J. Conroy, the 60th chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, in the post for the next two years.

Over the past four months, Roman Catholic dioceses across the U.S. have released the names of more than 1,000 priests and others accused of sexually abusing children in an unprecedented public reckoning spurred at least in part by a shocking grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania, an Associated Press review has found.

The author of a forthcoming book on the attitudes of U.S. Catholics finds anger over the sexual abuse crisis, but also the desire for a more active role for laypeople in the church.

In a letter distributed to the bishops at the beginning of their Jan. 2-8 retreat, Pope Francis said he was convinced their response to the "sins and crimes" of abuse and "the efforts made to deny or conceal them" must be found through "heartfelt, prayerful and collective listening to the word of God and to the pain of our people."