MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — A man who allegedly stabbed a priest in front of his congregation live on television during mass at Canada’s biggest church was charged Saturday with attempted murder and assault with a weapon. Vlad Cristian Eremia, 26, appeared briefly by video link in a Montreal court on Saturday afternoon, sporting a beard and wearing a checked shirt. He will remain in custody, with his next hearing on Monday. The suspect is […]
Tag: church
Priest stabbed live on TV at Canada’s biggest church
by Julien Besset Agence France Presse MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — A priest was stabbed in front of his congregation live on television during morning mass on Friday at Canada’s biggest church, in what police described as an isolated incident. Footage broadcast on a Catholic television station and picked up by the top-rated CTV network showed a man in jeans, parka and white baseball cap approach Claude Grou at St Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, in […]
Statue of Polish priest accused of sex abuse to be removed
WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — The statue of a Solidarity-era Polish priest accused of sex abuse will be permanently removed from a public square, city authorities in the port of Gdansk decided on Thursday, despite objections from supporters. Claims of abuse against the late priest Henryk Jankowski resurfaced in December when liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza published an article reviving allegations that had first surfaced years ago. Gdansk Mayor Aleksandra Dulkiewicz said she saw only “one […]
Moviegoers react to French film on priest’s abuse of boy scouts
French director François Ozon’s “By the Grace of God,” about the real-life story of a priest accused of sexually abusing boy scouts, hits Paris cinemas, a day after its controversial release was approved by the courts. Moviegoers who saw the film reacted to the controversial movie that touches on a subject that has stirred wounds of sex abuse victims of the Catholic clergy, and also created awareness about the issue. Marcel Benbassat, one of those […]
US Southern Baptist churches embroiled in sex abuse scandal
by Nova Safo Agence France Presse CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — The United States’ largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, is facing a sexual abuse crisis after a bombshell report revealed hundreds of predators and more than 700 victims since 1998. The report by two Texas newspapers found some 380 church leaders and volunteers have faced public accusations of abuse, mostly of children as young as three years old. Some of the accused […]
US bishops face pressure amid new sex assault revelations
by Nova Safo Agence France Presse CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — US bishops preparing for a meeting to address the sexual abuse scandal roiling the Catholic church suddenly find themselves in a high-stakes credibility test following a damning report accusing them of underplaying the crisis. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan on Wednesday issued an explosive report accusing the states Catholic dioceses of not releasing the names of at least 500 clergy accused of sexually abusing […]
Outgoing Australian ambassador Gorely makes her farewell courtesy call on INC leader
(Eagle News) — Outgoing Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Her Excellency Amanda Gorely, visited the Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church Of Christ) Central Office in Quezon City to make her farewell courtesy call on INC Executive Minister, Brother Eduardo V. Manalo, on Monday, December 10. Gorely said she was “delighted to pay a farewell courtesy call on Brother Eduardo Manalo.” It was the Australian ambassador’s second time to visit the INC Executive Minister. The first […]
Catholic Church’s Buffalo diocese submits documents to US feds amid sex abuse allegations
The Catholic Church’s diocese of Buffalo in New York state acknowledged Friday having received a demand for documents believed to be linked to a US federal investigation into sexual abuse. “Several months ago, we received a call from the local US Attorney’s office with a request to review documents,” the diocese said in a statement, without giving details about what the documents pertained to. “A subpoena was provided and after some discussion, an agreement […]
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.” […]
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 […]
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 […]





