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by Jennie Matthew Agence France Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A US report revealing that 300 priests sexually abused at least 1,000 children, facilitated by a Catholic Church cover-up, has increased calls to tighten laws and hold bishops accountable. The two-year investigation estimated that the real number of victims was “in the thousands” in Pennsylvania, the most comprehensive report into abuse in the US church that was first exposed in Boston in […]
by Jennie Matthew Agence France Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — More than 300 “predator” priests in Pennsylvania are accused of abusing over 1,000 children across seven decades, a grand jury said Tuesday in a devastating report that decried a systematic cover-up by the Catholic Church. It is thought to be the single most comprehensive report to date into abuse in the US church, since The Boston Globe first exposed pedophile priests in […]
BAMAKO, Mali (AFP)–At least 32 civilians were killed and 10 are missing following an attack in central Mali, believed to have been carried out by traditional hunters, local officials said Sunday, as the government said 16 bodies had been found. Armed Dozo hunters, linked to the Dogon ethnic group, were suspected of ambushing the isolated village of Koumaga in the Mopti region on Saturday, killing dozens of Fulani herders, including children. “They surrounded the village, separated the […]
A Vatican court on Saturday jailed for five years an Italian priest who worked as a diplomat for the See of Rome’s Washington embassy, for possessing and sharing child pornography. Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella pleaded guilty on Friday, the opening day of the court hearing, saying he had gone through a “personal crisis” and felt “useless” as a counsellor at the embassy. The 51-year-old told the three lay Italian judges at the tiny courtroom in […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — A French Catholic priest was suspended Friday after a video of him smacking a crying baby during a baptism ceremony went viral, drawing widespread condemnation on social media. In footage posted on Twitter on Thursday, gasps can be heard when the 89-year-old priest, after ordering the infant he is holding to “be quiet”, sharply slaps his cheek. A few seconds later he smacks him again. The baby’s parents, visibly shocked, […]
SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Police on Wednesday seized church files in raids in Santiago and Rancagua, as the Catholic Church scrambled to try to put a better face on a sex abuse scandal that has rocked Chile. The surprise operations came as Maltese archbishop Charles Scicluna and fellow papal envoy Jordi Bertomeu are visiting for a second time to take witness statements from victims of sexual abuse in the church and provide instruction to […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Child abuse victims and human rights activists from 15 countries on Thursday launched a new pressure group to campaign against abuse by Catholic clerics. “The church has got away with crime for too long”, said Peter Saunders, a British survivor of abuse, announcing the creation of the Ending Clerical Abuse (ECA) group at a press conference in Geneva. “ECA stands to compel the Roman catholic church to end clerical abuse, […]
by Miguel Sanchez Agence France-Presse SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Chile’s Catholic church took another blow on Saturday as the bishop leading the charge against sex abuse stepped down following more allegations of misconduct by priests. Rancagua Bishop Alejandro Goic presented his resignation as head of the Bishops’ Conference sex abuse prevention board, the latest episode in a Chilean abuse scandal which has rocked Pope Francis’s papacy. The church accepted Goic’s immediate resignation from the board […]
VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Thirty-four Chilean bishops announced their resignation Friday over a child sex abuse scandal within the Church in Chile after three days of intense meetings with Pope Francis at the Vatican. “We, all the bishops present in Rome, have tendered our resignation to the Holy Father so that he may decide freely for each of us,” the bishops said in a statement read out by a spokesman at the Vatican. “We […]
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell on Tuesday became the highest-ranked Catholic ever to be sent to trial for sex offences, adding to a series scandals facing the church globally. Here is a rundown of notable cases: – Australia – Cardinal George Pell, the third highest member of the Vatican hierarchy, has been ordered to stand trial on “multiple” historical sex charges, which he denies. His case coincided with a public […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada is pressing Catholic pope Francis to apologize to children who were plucked from indigenous communities and put in Catholic boarding schools where sexual abuse took place. Canadian MPs by a large majority passed a motion Tuesday asking the pontiff to apologize personally to Canadian aboriginal children who were torn from their families and sexually abused at residential schools. Voted in the House on Tuesday, 260 MPs voted in favor and […]
VATICAN CITY, Holy See (AFP) — Pope Francis admitted Wednesday he had made “grave mistakes in the assessment and perception of the situation” in Chile after reading the findings of an investigation into sexual abuse committed by the clergy in the country. Francis said in a letter to Chilean Bishops released by the Vatican that he intended to summon them to Rome to discuss the investigation, which involves Bishop Juan Barros’ alleged cover-up of […]
