Boston
Roman Catholic leaders in Boston will not face criminal charges for allowing priests accused of sexual abuse to continue working with children, Massachusetts officials announced this week. Former archbishop Bernard Law was pressured into stepping down in December after he admitted mishandling scores of abuse charges. Thomas Reilly, the state attorney general, said it would be difficult to convict Law or other bishops because there was no state law requiring clergy members to report abuse to police. One alleged victim, Gary Bergeron, 41, said the decision put bishops above the law. Church leaders “agreed to sanction the abuse of children throughout the years,” he said, and they should be punished.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Spain’s deadly high-speed train crashThe Explainer The country experienced its worst rail accident since 2013, with the death toll of 39 ‘not yet final’
-
Can Starmer continue to walk the Trump tightrope?Today's Big Question PM condemns US tariff threat but is less confrontational than some European allies
-
There’s a new serif in town: Trump’s font overhaulIn the Spotlight As the State Department shifts from Calibri to Times New Roman, is this just a ‘typographic dispute’, or the ‘latest battleground’ of a culture war
