The founder and all-female editorial board of the Vatican’s women’s magazine have quit after what they say was a Vatican campaign to discredit them and put them “under the direct control of men,” that only increased after they denounced the sexual abuse of nuns by clergy.

The editorial committee of “Women Church World,” a monthly glossy published alongside the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, made the announcement in the planned April 1 editorial and in an open letter to Pope Francis that was provided Tuesday to The Associated Press.

“We are throwing in the towel because we feel surrounded by a climate of distrust and progressive de-legitimization,” founder Lucetta Scaraffia wrote in the open letter.

CHICAGO – Nearly 400 Catholic clergy members in Illinois have been accused of sexual misconduct, but church officials have only informed congregants of a fraction of those who have faced allegations, according to attorneys who represented clergy sex abuse victims across the USA.

A 182-page report, published Wednesday by the Minnesota-based law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates, includes the names, background information, photos and assignment histories of each accused clergy member.

“The danger of sexual abuse in Illinois is clearly a problem of today, not just the past,” the report concludes. “This will continue to be a danger until the identities and histories of sexually abusive clerics, religious employees and seminarians are made public.”

Anderson said he hopes the report will push church leaders to publicly identify hundreds more clergy who faced allegations.

I am Melissa Davey, Melbourne Bureau Chief of Guardian Australia and one of a few journalists worldwide who sat through the entirety of the trial of Cardinal George Pell, including the committal hearing, mistrial and retrial. I also covered his evidence before Australia's child sexual abuse royal commission in 2016 live for four days straight. I have been covering issues like child sexual abuse, family violence and royal commissions for several years now, and the podcast I made on the child abuse royal commission with my colleagues Miles Martignoni and David Marr, 'The Reckoning', won two New York Festival awards. We've have now made 'The Reckoning Part 2' about the Pell case. We'll make the final episode after the appeal.

​Since the suppression order lifted on the Pell trials and my stories were published, I have been overwhelmed by the level of interest in the case, especially questions around the court process and the facts. I think it's important for journalists to make this court process as transparent and comprehensible as possible, so here I am to answer any of your questions. There is a huge appetite for dispassionate, clear reporting on this somewhat complicated story, and I've found the engagement from readers so interesting. As many of you will be aware there has been a significant backlash to the conviction led by Catholic news websites worldwide and some of the conservative press here in Australia. Let's talk about that too.

The word God is for me nothing but the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of venerable but still rather primitive legends.

No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change anything about this.