Catholic News Service

As the sun set Aug. 20, about 120 Catholics gathered on the steps of the Cathedral of St. Paul to pray for survivors of clergy sexual abuse and for a cleansing of the Catholic Church.

Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York, said that even though his efforts in handling sex abuse claims in the diocese seem to have "fallen short," he would not resign despite being asked to do so by several local leaders, including Catholics.

More committees are not the answer to stop the abuse of children and vulnerable adults by clergy, said an Aug. 28 statement by the National Review Board, which is charged with addressing clerical sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church.

After years of Catholics having to confess their sins to the clergy, it is now time for priests and bishops "to come clean about what they have done and what they have failed to do," the CEO of the Knights of Columbus said in a letter to his brother Knights and the organization's chaplains.

Bishops across the United States are offering apologies to victims, and renewed resolve to Catholics, in the wake of the Aug. 14 Pennsylvania grand jury report that detailed claims of sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children over 70 years in six dioceses in the state.

Pennsylvania survivors of clergy sex abuse spent the week after the release of the grand jury report finding their voice as bishops and priests in the state wrestled with how to address the growing scandal.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said he was "eager for an audience" with Pope Francis to gain his support for the bishops' plan to respond to the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

U.N. fact-finding mission said senior military officials in Myanmar must be prosecuted for genocide and war crimes against Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic minorities.

Retired Bishop Thomas O'Brien of Phoenix died Aug. 26. He was 82 and had been feeling the growing effects of Parkinson's disease in recent months.

U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd on Aug. 13 sentenced Michael Galloway, owner and operator of the Catholic Online website, to 21 months in prison for tax evasion, according to an announcement by U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott.

Before celebrating Mass in a Dublin park, Pope Francis solemnly asked forgiveness for the thousands of cases of sexual and physical abuse perpetrated by Catholics in Ireland.

As many Canadians mark National Acadian Day Aug. 15, the biggest Acadian diocese in the world is going through the greatest crisis in its history.

Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample issued a letter Aug. 20 to western Oregon Catholics in which he expresses shock, anger and discouragement over revelations of clergy sex abuse in other parts of the country.

With the Aug. 14 release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report on priestly sexual abuse of minors, the U.S. Catholic Church again is confronting questions about its response to abuse allegations dating back several decades.

While bishops have issued statements of remorse for sex abuse in the church, one author and seminary theology professor says what has been missing from these statements is an acknowledgment by the body of bishops of wrongdoing.

Marie Collins, a survivor of Irish clerical sex abuse, has given her backing to Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley as president of the Vatican's Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

What became known following a New York Times investigation into two seminarians who said they had been abused by Archbishop Theodore McCarrick is that settlements were reached with each man in the mid-2000s.

Seton Hall University officials have opened an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Archbishop Theodore McCarrick and others.

Manchester, England -- A global synod on priests could help the church to end the "terrible" scandals of clerical child abuse, an English bishop told Pope Francis.

In an Aug. 16 interview, Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico said the only way to regain the trust of the laity after decades-long claims of sexual abuse by priests and others at six Pennsylvania dioceses is by deeds and one of those deeds may mean getting rid of bishops who hid abusers.