The leader of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) on Monday announced proposed changes following an investigative report published last week finding widespread sexual abuse by pastors, staff, and volunteers in the denomination. “Brothers and sisters, there is a problem,” SBC President J.D. Greear said during prepared remarks at a two-day meeting of the denomination’s executive committee. “This is not a fabricated story made up by people with a secular agenda.

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.

A report about sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches this week sparked demands for criminal investigations and more accountability—calls that echo requests that abuse victims made to denominational leaders more than 10 years ago.

As Southern Baptists headed to church on Sunday, Feb. 10, the Houston Chronicle published a major investigation into devastating patterns of sexual abuse in Southern Baptist congregations.

The findings: Since 1998, some 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced sexual misconduct allegations involving more than 700 victims. More than 200 offenders have been convicted or have taken plea deals. Nearly 100 remain in prison. Others have returned to Southern Baptist pulpits.

Hundreds of Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced accusations of sexual misconduct over the past 20 years, according to a report by two Texas newspapers released Sunday. The six-month investigation by the San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle found that since 1998, nearly 400 church leaders were accused of victimizing more than 700 people, including small children.

Almost 2 percent of high school students identify as transgender, and they experience violence, use substances, attempt suicide, and engage in risky sex significantly more often than other students, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week. The study used the biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a school-based polling of students in grades nine through 12.

A New York moment:

After New York last week passed a law legalizing late-term abortions and removing protections for pregnant women facing violence, the state pivoted to take a positive step on a different issue involving children this week.