Franciscans Charged in Child Sex Abuse Cases

05-Child-Abuse-600For the first time in the US, prosecutors have charged members of a Catholic religious order with facilitating the abuse of dozens of children. Pennsylvania prosecutors said three Franciscan friars knew about sexual abuse allegations against Brother Stephen Baker but continued to place him in jobs that gave him access to children from the 1980s until 2010. In a separate case also in Pennsylvania, a grand jury report earlier this month chronicled alleged abuses by 35 diocesan priests, dating back to the 1950s. Most of the priests named in that report have died.

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