Each year, more than 25,000 undocumented immigrants are apprehended as they attempt to cross the border from Mexico to the United States. In most cases, we hear very few details about these apprehensions. But in one case, the details — which are especially gruesome — have become widely circulated.

A newly disclosed Vatican document reveals that officials instructed Ireland’s bishops not to report all suspected child abuse cases to the police. David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, says that the 1997 letter undermines persistent Vatican claims that Rome never instructed bishops to withhold evidence. Joe Rigert is a journalist and author of "An Irish Tragedy: How Sex Abuse by Irish Priests Helped Cripple the Catholic Church," and puts this new development in context.

According to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 980,000 people in the U.S. are addicted to some type of opiates: a sharp uptick in recent years. The number of emergency room visits linked to non-medical use of prescription pain relievers has more than doubled in recent years. The prescription painkillers being abused include oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone. And in six states—Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Utah and Vermont—accidental drug deaths due to use of anxiety medications increased 64 percent between 2004 and 2007.

Talking to reporters Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI had strong words about the abuse scandals that have plagued the church, saying, “sins inside the church” threatened Catholicism, and that “forgiveness does not substitute justice.” The notion that penance is different from justice is significant as the church sees a clash between those who want to protect priests those who are fighting for more transparency.

The Catholic Church has been at the center of a sexual abuse scandal for weeks, but now a lawsuit in Oregon is turning the spotlight on Boy Scouts of America.

The youth organization is being sued by a 37-year-old man who says he was molested several times by his scoutmaster back in the 1980s. This is not the first lawsuit against Boy Scouts of America, but this case brings new evidence that the scouting organization knew about hundreds of molesters within its ranks and failed to take action.

Hundreds of sexual abuse cases against Catholic priests have been surfacing in Ireland over the past weeks and the Pope said he will address the crisis in a repentance letter tomorrow.

But his efforts could be undermined by a scandal of his own. Last week, a senior church official said when the Pope was Archdiocese of Munich, he made “serious mistakes” in handling one specific priest accused of molesting boys back in the early 1980s.

Dr. Susan Clancy believes that for young children, sex abuse is oftentimes more confusing than it is traumatic at the moment that it’s happening. In her new book "The Trauma Myth: The Truth About Sexual Abuse of Children — And Its Aftermath," she argues that more victims would come forward if we stopped framing sex abuse as terrifying and violent, and instead acknowledged that child victims often love and want to please their perpetrators.