Father Thomas Berg is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, a former Legionary of Christ and professor of moral theology, vice rector and director of admissions at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, New York. He is author of Hurting in the Church: A Way Forward for Wounded Catholics. He spoke recently with CNA’s Courtney Grogan about the challenges Catholics face amid the Church’s sexual abuse and misconduct scandals...

No matter when Pope Francis might come to Ireland, it wouldn’t be an easy trip. This is a culture, after all, lacerated north and south, facing the impact of runaway secularization and some of the world’s most appalling clerical sexual abuse scandals. Right now, however, feels like a particularly tough moment. In the run-up to Francis’s arrival next Saturday morning...

A Cardinal who was heavily criticized for his handling of child sexual abuse allegations in the Pennsylvania grand jury report has withdrawn from a scheduled appearance at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin next week, it has been confirmed. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington, was due to give the keynote address...

There is a line in the Acts of the Apostles that I once found humorous: So the word of God continued to spread, and the number of disciples in Jerusalem continued to grow rapidly. Even a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7) Of course the priests referred to here are the priests of the ancient Temple, the Levitical priests...

On August 6th, the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Church marked the 25th anniversary of Pope St John Paul II’s landmark encyclical, Veritatis splendor. St John Paul himself explained the reason for the encyclical: Although the Church has “at all times developed and proposed a moral teaching regarding the many different spheres of human life...

Every Catholic should take the time at some point in their life to watch “Babette’s Feast,” a beautiful movie about a French cook in Denmark who wins the lottery and spends her entire earnings on a lavish feast for the two old spinsters she works for, and all their friends. Babette’s Feast was an obvious and intentional Eucharistic allegory...

I follow the death penalty debate, of course, but I am more concerned about how that debate impacts some ecclesiologically important aspects of the Church’s teaching function. As for the death penalty itself I find the arguments organized by Feser and Bessette in their treatise, By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed (Ignatius, 2017)...

Thank you for your recently-released statement addressing the revelations concerning both Archbishop Theodore McCarrick and the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report. Many American Catholics are grateful to read that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is committed to investigating, reporting on, and resolving questions and circumstances surrounding both issues...

There is a well-known principle of studying history known as the “criterion of embarrassment.” We see it vindicated in our own day in America every time some self-righteous SJW campaigns to demolish a statue of a Confederate general or what have you, and they call it “progress.” The Romans called it “damnatio memoriae” – the destruction of a person’s memory...

This week Cardinal Raymond Burke addressed the new wave of clergy abuse scandal giving insights and observations as to how it needs to be addressed. In an interview with Thomas McKenna of Catholic Action for Faith and Family, Cardinal Burke discussed the recent scandals involving clergy and members of the hierarchy. When asked about what is at the root of the crisis Cardinal Burke said "it seems clear in light of these recent terrible scandals that indeed there is a homosexual culture...

I don’t know about you, but the last few weeks have been pretty rough. First there was the story of Archbishop (former Cardinal) McCarrick. Then we had the report from Pennsylvania drop this week. It is so depressing. Last night it reached an apex when my wife and I cried with our two oldest kids after one of them asked me to explain what was going on...

I was born and raised in the Catholic Church. I have not always been the most faithful, mind you, but I’ve tried. If nothing else, I do what I can to set a good example for my daughters. It seems like my whole life has been filled with stories and jokes about priests and altar boys. These scandals aren’t new – Massachusetts comes to mind – but they do get a lot of media attention...

The German bishops are at it again. They are pushing the controversial agenda of intercommunion in certain instances for “mixed marriages” of Catholics with Protestant spouses. Accordingly, the German bishops published guidelines entitled: “Walking with Christ—tracing unity. Inter-denominational marriages and sharing the Eucharist...

A Pennsylvania grand jury this week published a 900-page report detailing sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children by some 300 Roman Catholic priests over 70 years. The grand jury had spent two years gathering subpoenaed archives from Pennsylvania’s six dioceses. It sought not only to share the victims’ stories but to document an entrenched culture of coverup reaching the highest levels of the U...

Recent allegations against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick include reports that he made sexual advances toward seminarians during his tenure as bishop of Metuchen and archbishop of Newark. CNA recently spoke to six priests of the Archdiocese of Newark, and one priest member of a religious order who was a seminarian in New York in the early 1970s...

This has been an ugly week: first for the survivors of sex abuse; second, for Catholics across the state; third, for the wider public. For many, rage is the emotion of choice. The latest grand jury report is a bitterly painful text. But rage risks wounding the innocent along with the guilty, and it rarely accomplishes anything good...

I am the sort of man the Catholic Church says shouldn’t be a priest. I experience what the Vatican calls “deep-seated homosexual tendencies,” which, according to the Church, make me an unsuitable candidate for the priesthood. The 2005 Vatican instruction on the question of homosexuality and the priesthood states this clearly: “The Church...

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has launched an investigation into allegations that a former student at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary sexually harassed a freshman at the Wynnewood school during the 2010-11 academic year, according to a letter sent to priests and deacons Tuesday. The letter, signed by Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Senior...

It is time for clergy and laity to begin a movement for the purification of the Church. The shameful sexual sins and crimes of clergy—including cardinals, bishops, and priests—can no longer be tolerated. Tolerance is precisely what has allowed these problems to multiply for decades and persist up to today. As Fr. Thomas Berg recently explained...

Among the sexual abusers mentioned in the Aug. 14 Pennsylvania grand jury report, one priest merits particular attention. Rev. David Szatkowski, SCJ, is mentioned in the section of the report concerning the Diocese of Allentown. In 2011, he was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a child. In August of that year, Szatkowski...