Child Sex Abuse

An Ohio DJ and former church youth ministry volunteer was charged on Tuesday with two counts of child rape. The alleged sexual assaults span eight years, involving a child age five to 12. 

Former pastor Jared Olivetti had his ordination and elder status revoked by the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America after an investigation ruled he mishandled child sex abuse allegations within the church.

25-year-old Georgia youth pastor Austin Wray Perkins was one of seven arrested on charges of child pornography. Police discovered and rescued an underaged victim who had been living with Perkins. 

A western Pennsylvania Roman Catholic priest who sexually assaulted an altar boy for several years has been sentenced to 2 1/2 to five years in state prison.

Pope Francis agreed to meet with the commission that published a ground-breaking report into clergy sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church in France announced on Monday that it would financially compensate sex abuse victims by selling property assets or taking out a loan if needed.

France’s government has summoned the head of the French bishops’ conference after he said that secrets shared in the confessional are above the law, including sex abuse confessions. These comments come as the country reels from new revelations of large-scale child sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis expressed “shame” for himself and the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday for the scale of child sexual abuse within the church in France and acknowledged failures in putting the needs of victims first.