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by Michel COMTE Agence France Presse OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — The Catholic Church apologized “unequivocally” on Friday to Canada’s indigenous peoples for a century of abuses at church-run residential schools set up by the government to assimilate children into the mainstream. But indigenous leaders are still awaiting a mea culpa from the pope himself. “We, the Catholic Bishops of Canada, express our profound remorse and apologize unequivocally,” read a statement, in which they said […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday denounced a wave of vandalism across Canada that saw churches damaged and statues of monarchs splashed with red paint and torn down. These acts followed the recent discoveries of more than 1,000 unmarked graves at former indigenous boarding schools that has provoked anger and grief in indigenous communities, and beyond, along with a reckoning of the country’s colonial history. “It is unacceptable and wrong […]
WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Poland’s embattled Catholic Church on Monday revealed that since 2018 it has received several hundred new claims of sexual abuse of minors committed by clergy. The report comes as the politically influential church has been hit by a series of high profile cases of abuse and cover-ups — until recently a taboo subject in the devout country. “What’s striking… is the fact that since the last survey we’ve had a […]
Canadian PM says he had spoken directly with Catholic Church’s Pope Francis, seeking an apology for the abuse by Michel COMTE Agence France Presse Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized Friday for “harmful government policies” and did not rule out a criminal probe after hundreds of unmarked graves were discovered at a former indigenous residential school in western Canada. The public mea culpa for the policy of indigenous assimilation and other historical wrongs comes one […]
by Isabelle LE PAGE and Deborah COLE Agence France Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — An independent study commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church released Thursday has uncovered hundreds of cases of sexual violence allegedly committed by clergy and laymen in Germany’s top diocese. The long-awaited 800-page report on the Cologne diocese found 202 alleged perpetrators of sexual assault and 314 victims between 1975 and 2018, Bjoern Gercke, a lawyer mandated by the Church, told […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Pope Francis’s former envoy to France, Luigi Ventura, goes on trial in Paris on Tuesday for sexual assault following complaints by five men who accused him of groping them during public ceremonies. The allegations against the 75-year-old Italian-born archbishop caused deep embarrassment for the Vatican, coming in the midst of a slew of revelations about clerical sex abuse that have rocked the Catholic Church. Ventura was stripped of his diplomatic […]
by Charlotte PLANTIVE and Joy POWELL, with Ines BEL AIBA in Washington Agence France Presse MINNEAPOLIS, United States (AFP) — Authorities imposed curfews in the capital Washington and other major US cities Sunday to prevent fresh rioting after anti-racism protestors again took to the streets to voice their fury at police brutality. As the Trump administration branded instigators of five nights of rioting domestic terrorists, there were more confrontations between protestors and police and […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — The Philippines has become the world’s largest known source of online child sexual exploitation, with endemic poverty helping drive a surge in abuse, a report said Thursday. Parents and relatives were responsible for facilitating the abuse in nearly all cases, according to the International Justice Mission aid group’s seven-year study. The combination of English fluency and high internet connectivity in the former US colony had helped make the country a “global […]
by Holly ROBERTSON Agence France Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Cardinal George Pell was aware of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Australia as far back as the 1970s and failed to seek the removal of accused priests, according to findings of a top-level inquiry released Thursday. The Royal Commission report was handed down in 2017 but pages relating to Pell’s conduct were heavily redacted to prevent jurors in his trials on child […]
by Holly ROBERTSON Agence France Presse BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) — Cardinal George Pell was released from prison on Tuesday, hours after Australia’s High Court quashed his conviction for child sex abuse, bringing to an abrupt end the most high-profile paedophilia case faced by the Catholic Church. The 78-year-old left Barwon Prison near Melbourne after the court overturned five counts of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in the 1990s. Pell, who had steadfastly maintained his […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — An international mental health charity based in France accused its revered Canadian founder on Saturday of sexually abusing several women. L’Arche (The Ark) said an independent investigation had found that six women were abused by Jean Vanier between 1970 and 2005 but that none of the victims identified were disabled. Vanier, a devout Catholic who set up L’Arche, in the 1960s, died last year of cancer. “We are devastated by […]
OTTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada must pay almost a billion dollars in settlements to hundreds of military victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault and gender-based discrimination, a federal court ruled Monday. The victims, some of whom still work in the Canadian armed forces or the defense ministry, filed class action lawsuits in 2016 and 2017 after an independent investigation found “an underlying sexualized culture” in Canada’s armed forces “that is hostile to women and […]
