After news broke of a scandal involving Jerry Falwell Jr., his status at Liberty University wavered between questionable and definitely leaving, depending on which media outlet was reporting it. The university said in a statement he agreed to step down as president and from its board of directors but then withdrew the resignation after news of it hit the national press.

An English poem originating around 1500, “Blowbol’s Test,” refers to “a March hare” acting erratically. Fast fact: During March, their major breeding month, hares attack other hares and leap vertically for no apparent reason. The “March Hare” is a major character in the tea party scene of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865). Kaiser Wilhelm in 1908 called the English “mad as March hares.”

The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Francis has defrocked former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after Roman Catholic officials found him guilty of sexual abuse in the church. The 88-year-old former archbishop of Washington, D.C., can no longer celebrate Mass or other sacraments, wear clerical vestments, or have any title in the church. The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith office of the Vatican on Jan.

Pope Francis defrocked a Chilean priest at the center of the ongoing sex abuse scandal in Chile, the Vatican announced Friday. The statement cited the “exceptional amount of damage” the priest’s crimes had done, adding that Francis was stiffening the sentence for “the good of the church.”

The Willow Creek Association announced Tuesday the formation of an independent committee to investigate accusations of sexual misconduct against Willow Creek Community Church’s founding pastor, Bill Hybels.

New York and New Jersey launched investigations Friday into the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of sex abuse allegations. Three weeks after a grand jury report found rampant sexual abuse of children by priests in Pennsylvania since the 1940s, Catholic leaders in New York and New Jersey said they would cooperate with authorities. The New York Archdiocese confirmed it received subpoenas and vowed to work with state Attorney General Barbara Underwood.

The archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Donald Wuerl, in a statement released Monday denied he was ever informed of the sexual accusations and penalties leveled against his predecessor. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò over the weekend published an 11-page letter accusing senior Vatican officials of knowing as early as 2000 that former Archbishop Theodore McCarrick regularly invited seminarians into his bed.