Cardinal Peter Turkson may have badly damaged his prospects of becoming pope by suggesting that child sexual abuse is not a major problem in churches in Africa because homosexuality is looked on negatively. The remark is not only offensive but also reveals a dangerous ignorance that may undermine attempts to protect children.
Churches across Britain and Ireland - and especially Catholic leaders - have used Easter Sunday sermons to address the Catholic Church's handling of its global child abuse scandal.
The Roman Catholic Church in Germany has launched an official telephone hotline for victims of sexual abuse in its institutions. Critics say it is still too little, too late.
In the matter of clerical abuse, justice must be done, says Martin Marty. But how and by whom the story gets told also matters. So why have Protestants and other Christians been so relatively quiet on the Catholic crisis?
Palm Sunday worshippers were startled to face strong protests against the Pope and calls for his resignation as "an accomplice in sex crimes" outside London's Westminster Cathedral.
The chairperson and founder of the group Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors, Margaret Kennedy, has said that the BBC Panorama documentary attacking the Catholic Church over child sexual abuse