David Gibson

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El papa Francisco durante una reunión con jóvenes en Roma, el 11 de agosto Credit Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

La crisis por los abusos sexuales que cometió el clero católico ha recobrado la misma fuerza que llegó a tener en los peores días de 2002, cuando el tsunami del escándalo proveniente de Boston pareció inundar a toda la Iglesia.

Esta vez, las olas expansivas comenzaron a partir de acusaciones comprobadas sobre abusos en contra de niños cometidos por un muy conocido cardenal estadounidense, Theodore McCarrick, arzobispo retirado de Washington, quien tuvo que renunciar en julio al Colegio Cardenalicio. Después se dio a conocer el informe del gran jurado de Pensilvania, con detalles sobre más de setenta años de terribles abusos cometidos por unos trescientos sacerdotes, la mayoría de dichos abusos facilitados por obispos.…  Seguir leyendo »

Pope Francis arriving onstage to meet Italian youth at the Circo Massimo in Rome last week. Credit Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Roman Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse crisis has come roaring back to life as if it were the worst days of 2002, when the scandal tsunami out of Boston seemed to inundate the entire church.

The shock waves this time came from substantiated allegations that a well-known cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, a retired archbishop of Washington, had molested boys; he was forced to resign last month from the College of Cardinals. Then came the grand jury report out of Pennsylvania detailing 70 years of horrific abuse by some 300 priests, too much of it facilitated by bishops.

It has all landed on the desk of the current pope, and the scandals have the potential to undermine the Francis pontificate.…  Seguir leyendo »

All you need to know to diagnose the state of the Catholic Church in America today is that Pope Benedict XVI -- who has a knack for ticking off Muslims and Jews -- spent the past week wandering the Middle East, yet Catholics here barely noticed. They were too busy fighting over Barack Obama's appearance as commencement speaker at Notre Dame or arguing about the fate of a popular Miami priest known as "Father Oprah," who was caught on camera sharing a seaside embrace with his girlfriend.

Is this what Catholicism in America has come to? Bickering about whether Notre Dame is really Catholic, or whether a priest can make out on the beach with his gal pal?…  Seguir leyendo »

With little fanfare, Benedict XVI will tomorrow mark the second anniversary of his formal installation as pope, a threshold at which his immediate predecessors had established themselves in the public mind. Yet he remains an enigma to many who thought they knew him well, and something of a blank slate to a world curious to see what this new pontiff would be like.

Polls show Benedict — formerly known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — in the middle of the pack among respected world leaders, and a survey last year in Germany had the Dalai Lama and even the losing World Cup coach Jürgen Klinsmann outpacing the first German pope as “a role model and admirable person.”…  Seguir leyendo »