Tag: Catholic

Disgraced Catholic Cardinal Pell of Australia loses child sex abuse appeal

  by Holly ROBERTSON Agence France Presse MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Disgraced Cardinal George Pell lost his appeal against child sex abuse convictions Wednesday, prompting relief from victims who fought to bring one of the Catholic Church’s most powerful men to justice. A former Vatican treasurer, Pell had been trying to overturn the verdicts and six-year sentence for sexually assaulting two 13-year-old choirboys at a Melbourne cathedral in the 1990s. The high-profile case pitted 78-year-old […]

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Prosecutor accuses Argentine bishop close to pope of abuse

  BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A bishop close to Pope Francis has been formally accused of sexually abusing seminarians, a public prosecutor’s office in Argentina said Friday. The prosecutor’s office in the Argentine province of Salta said prosecutor Mónica Viazzi accused Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta of “aggravated continuous sexual abuse.” This is the first time that a prosecutor has formally accused Zanchetta in his native Argentina. Zanchetta resigned suddenly as bishop of the Argentine city […]

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Disgraced Australian cardinal Pell faces new legal battle over failure to report abuse

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Disgraced Australian Cardinal George Pell is facing fresh legal woes after being named in a civil suit alleging he failed to protect victims of a priest he knew was abusing children. The civil case was filed in the Victoria state Supreme Court on Friday by a man who said he suffered abuse at the hands of Christian Brother Edward “Ted” Dowan when he was a student at a Melbourne college […]

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Special Report: Top US cardinal accused of mishandling aide’s sex abuse case

  By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — When Cardinal Daniel DiNardo first met Laura Pontikes in his wood-paneled conference room in December 2016, the leader of the U.S. Catholic Church’s response to its sex abuse scandal said all the right things. He praised her for coming forward to report that his deputy in the Galveston-Houston archdiocese had manipulated her into a sexual relationship and declared her a “victim” of the priest, Pontikes said. […]

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Vatican Supreme Court clears Austrian priest accused of trying to kiss nun

The Vatican Supreme Court has cleared a senior priest accused of making advances towards a German nun during confession, the Vatican said on Friday. The five-member Supreme Court, the Apostolic Signatura, said in a statement that after careful examination the “serious” allegation could not be proved “with the required moral certitude”. Austrian priest Hermann Geissler proclaimed his innocence but resigned in January as one of three top officials at the Congregation for the Doctrine of […]

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US Catholic abuse victims sue Vatican to name predatory priests

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Five Americans who say they were sexually molested by Catholic priests filed a lawsuit against the Vatican on Tuesday to compel the church to open its archives and hand over the names and details of abusive clergy. The plaintiffs “were harmed as a result of the Defendant Holy See’s practice and policy of not reporting suspected child abuse to law enforcement officials,” stated the lawsuit filed in US federal […]

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Film on Catholic priests using nuns as ‘sex slaves’ pulled

PARIS, France (AFP) — A hit documentary about how some Catholic priests allegedly abused nuns in different parts of the world has been pulled from the Franco-German television channel Arte after a priest complained to a German court. The big-budget media investigation, “Sex Slaves in the Catholic Church”, was broadcast in March and has been sold widely internationally since. Its broadcast came weeks after Pope Francis admitted that some rogue priests had used nuns as […]

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All Catholic heritage churches in Pampanga on “lockdown,” closed after quake; damage assessment ongoing

  (Eagle News) – The Catholic Archdiocesan Committee on Church Heritage (ACCH) – Pampanga has recommended a “lockdown” of all heritage churches in Pampanga following the 6.1 magnitude quake that damaged many structures in the province. In its Facebook page, the ACCH said that it is recommending the lockdown for “everyone’s safety.” The ACCH also received reports of cracks in some of the structures of the old Catholic chuches, many of which had been built […]

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World leaders react to deadly Sri Lanka blasts

  COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — World leaders have condemned a series of blasts in Sri Lanka that killed more than 150 people on Sunday, including dozens of foreigners — with British, Dutch and American citizens believed to be among them. Hospital sources also said Japanese citizens were among those injured by the bombs which ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services. Here is a summary of the reactions: – Britain: ‘Stand together’ […]

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Vatican expresses sadness, incredulity over Notre Dame cathedral fire

  The Vatican on Monday expressed its “incredulity” and “sadness” over a major fire that engulfed the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, which it called “a symbol of Christianity in France and across the world”. “We express our closeness with French Catholics and with the Parisian population. We pray for the firefighters and for all those who are trying their best to tackle this dramatic situation,” a Vatican spokesman said in a statement. International leaders also […]

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Australian priest charged with sex abuse of boy: police

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian police said on Wednesday they had charged a Catholic priest with indecent assault of a 15-year-old boy more than two decades ago, the latest member of the clergy caught in the church’s global sex-abuse scandal. The announcement comes a week after disgraced Australian Cardinal George Pell was sentenced in Melbourne to six years in prison for the sexual abuse of two choirboys. Police said the 61-year-old man, whose identity was […]

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Cardinal Pell victim says ‘hard to take comfort’ from sentencing

The former choirboy molested by Australian Cardinal George Pell led the response to his sentencing Wednesday, saying it was “hard to take comfort” from his six-year jail term. Pell was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria after being found guilty of five counts of sexual and indecent assault in the sacristy of a Melbourne cathedral in 1996 and 1997. Chief Justice Peter Kidd told the court the 77-year-old would be eligible for parole after […]

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