SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — A Singaporean woman was found guilty Friday of abusing her Myanmar maid, including forcing her to pour hot water onto herself and to drink water laced with floor cleaner. The abuse of the maid, Phyu Phyu Mar, happened from August to October 2016 at the house of the Singaporean married couple who employed her, according to court documents. The abuses detailed in six charges against the wife — Linda Seah — […]
Tag: abuse
US clergy abuse survivors demand inclusion in Vatican reforms
CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — Advocates for clergy abuse victims on Wednesday demanded inclusion in a historic Vatican conference to address the crisis, as US bishops gathered in prayer near Chicago in advance of the February meeting. The groups Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said they had sent an open letter to Catholic Church’s Pope Francis asking to be included in discussing reforms in the Catholic […]
Catholic Church’s Pope Francis accepts US bishop’s resignation over misconduct with minor
VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Catholic Church’s Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Los Angeles auxiliary bishop Alexander Salazar over his “inappropriate behaviour” with a minor, the Vatican said Wednesday. The case is the latest in a litany of child sexual abuse scandals to have rocked the Roman Catholic Church of 1.3 billion followers around the world. The Vatican said an investigation by the Archbishop of Los Angeles had found suspicions about Salazar’s behavior […]
US priest accused of sex abuse arrested in Philippines; BI says priest to be deported
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — An American Catholic priest wanted for allegedly sexually abusing Filipino altar boys as young as seven has been arrested in the Philippines and now faces deportation, officials said Thursday. Kenneth Bernard Hendricks, 77, was taken into custody Wednesday on the central island of Biliran after serving as a priest for 37 years in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. “We received information from US authorities regarding the alleged sexual exploitation of multiple […]
US opens federal investigation into Catholic Church abuse
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The US has for the first time opened a federal investigation into abuse committed by Catholic clergy, issuing a subpoena to dioceses in Pennsylvania two months after the publication of a report on decades of sexual abuse in the state. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia confirmed on its website Thursday that it had “received a subpoena issued by a federal grand jury, which requires the production of certain documents.” […]
Catholic Church’s Pope Francis defrocks two Chilean bishops for sex abuse of minors
Catholic Church’s Pope Francis has defrocked two Chilean bishops for the alleged sexual abuse of minors, the Vatican said in a statement on Saturday after a meeting between the pontiff and the president of Chile. The decision to expel former archbishop Francisco Jose Cox Huneeus and former bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez — the latest heads to roll in a country hit hard by the cleric abuse scandal — could not be appealed, it […]
US Cardinal Donald Wuerl, accused over abuse cover-up, resigns
Catholic Church’s Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of US Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who was blamed for not doing enough to deal with paedophile priests when he was a bishop in Pennsylvania, the Vatican said Friday. Wuerl, who has stepped down as archbishop of Washington, had announced last month that he planned to meet with the Catholic pope to discuss his resignation. A sweeping US grand jury report released in August revealed credible allegations […]
Abuse victim sues Vatican in bid to identify predators
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — A US man who says he was raped by a priest as a child announced Thursday he was suing the Vatican seeking the identification of accused clergy members worldwide. Over recent months, the Catholic Church has been gripped by a global sexual abuse scandal — particularly in Australia, Chile and the US — with allegations that cases were covered up by top church officials. “I’m seeking the truth […]
German Catholic Church apologizes for mass child sex abuse
by Raphaelle Logerot and Hui Min Neo in Berlin Agence France Presse FULDA, Germany (AFP) — Germany’s Catholic Church on Tuesday apologized to thousands of victims of sexual assault by clergy, with the institution’s top cardinal saying perpetrators must be brought to justice. Cardinal Reinhard Marx said he was ashamed over the decades of abuse that have shattered trust, as well as how so many looked away for so long. The dismay expressed by […]
German Catholic Church to own up to decades of child abuse
by Frank Zeller Agence France Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany’s Catholic Church was Tuesday due to confess to and apologize for thousands of cases of sexual abuse against children, part of a global scandal heaping pressure on the Vatican. It will release the latest in a series of reports on sexual crimes and cover-ups spanning decades that has shaken the largest Christian Church, from Europe to the United States, South America and Australia. […]
Fugitive US priest sent home to face sex abuse charges
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — A Catholic priest on the run for more than 25 years has been arrested in Morocco and extradited to the United States to face charges that he sexually assaulted a young boy in the 1990s, federal prosecutors in New Mexico said Friday. Arthur Perrault, now 80 years old, stands accused of aggravated sexual abuse of a minor under the age of 12 on several occasions in 1991 and […]
Sex abuse claims rock Dutch Catholic Church
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — More than half of the Netherlands’ senior clerics were involved in covering up sexual assault of children between 1945 and 2010, a press report claimed Saturday, further engulfing the Catholic Church in a global abuse scandal. Over the course of 65 years, 20 of 39 Dutch cardinals, bishops and their auxiliaries “covered up sexual abuse, allowing the perpetrators to cause many more victims”, the daily NRC reported. “Four abused children […]
