The archdiocesan statement said Cardinal Gérald Lacroix “categorically denies the allegations against him” and considers them “unfounded.”

RTÉ aired two documentaries in January looking at the decline of the Catholic Church in Ireland: “The Last Priests in Ireland” and “The Last Nuns in Ireland.” But signs of hope can still be discerned amid the decline after years of church turbulence.

A Wisconsin judge suspended charges against defrocked Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, accused of sexually assaulting a boy in the 1970s, ruling he is incompetent for trial because of dementia.

The Slovenian Archdiocese of Ljubljana announced that the Vatican had ordered the Sisters of the Community of Loyola to be dissolved within one year.

The ongoing sexual abuse scandal involving the Rev. Marko Rupnik is another reminder of what the church needs to do to deal with this continuing plague.

Chapter 11 reorganization will help the Archdiocese of Baltimore manage lawsuits from historic cases of child sexual abuse without abandoning its ministries.