We have been told we are too gay or too female or too mentally ill or too divorced to serve in the church.

To be a voice for victims of clerical sexual abuse, Father Brendan McGuire realized he had to come to terms with the abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest when he was 18. It was a secret he had held for 35 years.

The diocese argued in court -- and said in a statement provided to Catholic News Service Sept. 19 -- that the man, Angelo Serrano, abused the boys at his apartment, and not on church property, and that "he was not clergy or an employee of the diocese of parish."

“The church has lost credibility in investigating itself.”

Even after revelations about sexual abuse in the church, 79 percent of U.S. Catholics—but only 53 percent of all Americans—hold a favorable view of Pope Francis, according to a Gallup poll.

In his celebration of Mass, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore said he will be with the Catholics of West Virginia on the journey to "healing and reconciliation."