Allegations of physical assault, sexual assault and hazing at a Catholic high school in Santa Ana, California, illustrate a toxic culture stretching back decades and an ongoing lack of accountability, critics say.
"My heart kind of dropped and I realized, oh, this wasn't just a one-off incident with me when he crossed the boundary," one of the women says of the Catholic composer. "This is a pattern of behavior."
U.S. voters must choose between two presidential candidates accused of sexual assault. To the extent that political bodies can learn anything from the Catholic Church, the lessons are in the failings, say Catholic activists, feminists and survivor advocates.
Louise Aamot Charbonneau couldn't make her annual trip to the South Dakota Legislature this year to confront lawmakers with her story of surviving childhood rape and abuse at the hands of priests and nuns at a boarding school for Native Americans during the 1950s and 1960s.
Cardinal George Pell will have his last chance to have his conviction for sexually abusing two 13-year old choirboys overturned when his lawyers plead his case to the High Court of Australia March 11-12.
A Texas grand jury has declined to indict the onetime deputy to Cardinal Daniel DiNardo on charges he sexually assaulted a married woman in a case that raised questions about consent in the #MeToo era.
Italian Archbishop Luigi Ventura, 74, a Vatican diplomat who once served in Canada, Chile and western Africa, is under investigation by police in Paris for allegedly sexually assaulting a city official.
On a long, low shelf at Safe Shores in downtown Washington, colorful figurines of wild animals, army soldiers, a winged dragon and an angel appear to be the toy collection of an overly neat child.
Distinctly Catholic: Judge Brett Kavanaugh called last week's hearing "a national disgrace." On cable news, moderate voices fretted that the U.S. had never been in such dire straits. Bosh.
