In summer 2010, Robert Orsi, Terence McKiernan, and I began a conversation about the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.…
Revisited: Sex abuse and the study of religion
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Catholic bishops on immigration reform
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has undertaken a coordinated effort to preach the message of immigration reform…
SCOTUS roundup: Rulings on DOMA and Prop 8
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 on Wednesday that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law…
Encountering the archive
Where on earth to begin with the rich but deeply disturbing material presented to us on BishopAccountability.org? (For an example,…
The curious case of Paul Richard Shanley
In the discursive regime of sexual abuse, the operative silence is the victim’s. This silence stems from shame and intimidation.…
Bishop accountability?
At the most recent United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Review Board stated that it was crucial for…
The bishops, the sisters, and religious freedom
At its March 2012 meeting, the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved “Our First, Most…
The Vatican and the “war on women religious”
The recent Vatican report on the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR), an umbrella organization representing roughly eighty percent of American…
War on nuns
At The Nation, Norman Birnbaum, professor emeritus at Georgetown University Law Center, rebukes the Catholic Church for its historical "unyielding…
Catholic bishops on religious liberty
Last week the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and its Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty released a lengthy statement…