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“Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal”

Gregory Erlandson and Matthew Bunson are co-authors of a May 2010 book, “Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal.” Their book aims for “a stronger balance” between media reports and what the authors say is the pope’s actual track record on clergy abuse. Bunson is a church historian and […]

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Merle Longwood

Merle Longwood of Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., is a professor of religious studies (and a Lutheran at the Franciscan school) who has studied the issue of sexuality and Catholicism. At a panel on the sexual abuse crisis at the American Academy of Religion Conference in 2004, Longwood argued that clergy sex abuse is not […]

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Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea

Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea is a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of survivors of clergy sexual misconduct. She made national headlines when she was invited to give an address on clergy abuse to the Catholic bishops at their June 2002 meeting in Dallas. She is the author of Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic […]

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“Sexual Acts With Children Officially Criminalized in Catholic Church”

Read a July 12, 2013, article published on CharismaNews.com about Pope Francis’ decree that officially criminalizes sexual acts with children. Though the law only applies to the Vatican City, it was meant to send a message to the world about the pope’s commitment to ending the crimes that have disgraced the church for more than a […]

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“Another Long Lent”

Read “Another Long Lent,” an April 8, 2011, essay in Commonweal magazine about the Philadelphia crisis by Nicholas P. Cafardi, Cafardi is a civil and canon lawyer and one of the original members of the USCCB’s National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Youth. He is the author of Before Dallas, a history of the clergy child sexual-abuse […]

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