MEXICO CITY (AP) — The administrator of the elite Catholic school in Cancun, Mexico, used to take the girls out of class and send them to the chapel, where the priest from the Legion of Christ religious order would sexually abuse them.
“As some were reading the Bible, he would rape the others in front of them, little girls aged 6 to 8 or 9,” said one of his victims, Ana Lucia Salazar, now a 36-year-old Mexican television host and mother of three.
CHICAGO (AP) — One day in May of 1970, an 11-year-old boy and his disabled sister were sitting on the curb outside a Chicago tavern, waiting for their mother to come out. When a priest with crinkly eyes and a ready smile happened by and offered the family a ride home, they could not have been happier.
HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — A towering white cathedral built on the site of Guam's first church dominates the skyline of Hagåtña, the sleepy capital of this American territory.
It is a symbol of Catholicism on an island closer to Tokyo than Honolulu, where the faith is part of daily life. More than 85% of Guam's 165,000 residents identify as Catholic. By comparison, it's 36% in one of the most Catholic cities on the mainland, Boston.
DETROIT (AP) — A conservative Detroit priest renowned for his orchestral Masses and traditional Latin services has been removed from public ministry after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit reviewed what it described as a "credible allegation" that he had abused a child decades ago.
BALTIMORE (AP) — Under intense public pressure, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops approved new steps this week to deal more strongly with the clergy sex-abuse crisis. But activists and others say the moves leave the bishops in charge of policing themselves and potentially keep law enforcement at arm's length.