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by Ella Ide Agence France Presse VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Pope Francis on Thursday handed the world’s top Catholic bishops guidelines to shape the debate at a landmark Vatican summit on tackling clerical sex abuse. “As a help, I would share with you some important criteria formulated by the various episcopal commissions and conferences — they came from you and I have organised them somewhat,” he said as the meeting began. “They are guidelines to […]
By Agence France Presse VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Survivors of clerical paedophilia related their traumatic experiences to the world’s top bishops on Thursday at a landmark summit at the Vatican on the protection of minors. Here are some extracts from their video testimonies, the transcripts of which were provided by the Vatican, without identifying the speakers. – Victim from South America – “The first thing they did was to treat me as a liar, […]
WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — A senior nun has spoken out for the first time about priests sexually abusing nuns in staunchly Catholic Poland following an an unprecedented public admission by Pope Francis. Mother Superior Joanna Olech was speaking after the pontiff earlier this month admitted that priest have used nuns as “sexual slaves” — and may still be doing so. “The problem of sexual abuse committed by priests against nuns has also existed in […]
VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Two cardinals criticized on Wednesday Pope Francis’s approach to the clerical paedophilia crisis, saying “abuse of power” was not to blame but homosexuality. “We turn to you with deep distress! The Catholic world is adrift,” US Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke and German Cardinal Walter Brandmueller said in an open letter to the heads of the bishops’ conferences. “Sexual abuse is blamed on clericalism. But the first and primary fault of the clergy does not rest […]
by Lucie Peytermann Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — A US-based group that compiles data on sexual abuse by Catholic clerics and bishops accused of covering it up fears that a bid by Pope Francis to tackle the scandals is a case of too little, too late. Speaking ahead of a Vatican summit of bishops this week to discuss the crisis, Anne Barret Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, complained of a “disconnect” between the […]
By Agence France Presse VATICAN CITY (AFP) — The Catholic Church’s Pope Francis has defrocked a former cardinal in a first for the church over accusations American Theodore McCarrick sexually abused a teenager 50 years ago, a Vatican statement said Saturday. McCarrick, 88, who resigned from the Vatican’s College of Cardinals in July, is the first cardinal ever to be defrocked for sex abuse. He was found guilty in January by a Vatican court […]
WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — The Catholic Church’s Polish Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki on Wednesday said he had met with several victims of church sex abuse ahead of a Vatican meeting on the issue later this month. Pope Francis has called senior bishops from around the world to Rome on February 21-24 to provide them with concrete measures to deal with widespread clergy sex abuse of children and young people. “A couple of weeks ago… I […]
by Ella Ide Agence France Presse VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Pope Francis’s public admission that priests have used nuns as “sexual slaves” — and may still be doing so — marks a new chapter in the abuse crisis rocking the Catholic church. “It is the first time that the pope, but also the church as an institution, has publicly admitted this abuse is taking place, and that’s hugely important,” Lucetta Scaraffia, editor of the Vatican’s […]
by Catherine Marciano Agence France Presse The Catholic Church’s Pope Francis admitted Tuesday that priests and bishops had sexually abused nuns, the latest scandal to rock the church. “There are some priests and also bishops who have done it,” the pontiff said in response to a journalist’s question on the abuse of nuns, speaking on the return flight from his trip to the United Arab Emirates. The papal admission followed a rare outcry last […]
Catholic Church’s Pope Francis will meet young student priests on Saturday on the fourth day of his visit to Panama for World Youth Day celebrations, a day after the clergy sex abuse scandal haunting his papacy returned to the spotlight. The 82-year-old Argentine pontiff had earlier acknowledged at a general audience in August that the scandals of abuse and cover-up by Church leaders has caused a decline in vocations to the priesthood in Ireland, […]
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 […]
(Eagle News) — Cardinal George Pell of Australia who was a member of the Catholic Church’s Pope Francis’ circle of cardinal advisers until recently, had been found guilty of charges related to sexual abuse by an Australian court, according to various media reports that emerged despite a gag order. According to Washington Post and the Catholic News Agency, news about Pell’s conviction on Tuesday, December 11, for sexual offenses came out despite a news […]
