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Va. priest with blog critical of church’s abuse handling removed

RICHMOND, Va. — A priest in Virginia has been removed from his post after maintaining a blog critical of the Catholic Church’s handling of the sexual abuse scandal.

News outlets report Rev. Mark White, whose blog reaches more than 1 million readers, was removed on Monday. He served as the priest of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Martinsville and St. Francis of Assisi in Rocky Mount.

The Catholic Diocese of Richmond says White has since been reassigned as chaplain to different state and federal prisons within the dioceses.

His removal follows a months-long dispute with the head of the Diocese of Richmond and other church officials over the blog.

Va. health dept. improves nursing home inspection backlog, reforms sanction criteria for facilities

Stories of neglect in care or unsanitary living situations have plagued several of Virginia’s nursing home facilities in recent years and data backs up a lapse in oversight by state agencies.  With reform efforts underway, the Virginia Department of Health officials said they aim to adopt sanction criteria by the end of the year to rein in bad actors and get troubled facilities back on track.  As of July, 58% of Virginia’s nursing homes were overdue for inspections and 68 of Virginia’s 289 nursing homes were found to have serious deficiencies, according to ProPublica. Several of the state’s flagged facilities with numerous deficiencies also had high staffing turnover rates.  The issue has been salient among various healthcare spaces, including VDH. 
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