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by Catherine Marciano Agence France Presse VATICAN CITY (AFP) — With the Catholic Church rocked by a devastating US report into child sex abuse, Catholic Church’s Pope Francis has this week sharpened his criticism on the explosive issue — but he remains under pressure to enact far-reaching changes. The US grand jury report accused more than 300 “predator” priests in the state of Pennsylvania of abusing more than 1,000 children over seven decades, sparking […]
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 […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — An 11-year-old child bride returned to Thailand this week following widespread outcry over her marriage to a Malaysian man 30 years her senior, an official told AFP on Saturday. Malaysian Muslims below the age of 16 are allowed to wed with the permission of religious courts but news of the union between the girl and the 41-year-old trader went viral on social media, reigniting calls to end child marriage. The ceremony […]
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 […]
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 […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — One of India’s top women chess players has pulled out of an upcoming championship in Iran in protest at having to wear an Islamic headscarf. Soumya Swaminathan, a former world junior girls champion, said the dress code at the Asian Nations Chess Cup starting next month violated her rights. “I find the Iranian law of compulsory headscarf to be in direct violation of my basic human rights including my right […]
SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — The Vatican’s top abuse investigator arrived in Chile on Tuesday, a day after the Catholic Pope accepted the resignation of three bishops from the scandal-wracked Chilean Church. Maltese archbishop Charles Scicluna and fellow papal envoy Jordi Bertomeu will take witness statements from victims of sexual abuse within the Church and provide instruction to Chilean dioceses to respond adequately to any new complaints. “We have come to ask forgiveness” from the victims on […]
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 […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — An Australian archbishop was Tuesday found guilty of covering up child sex abuse in the 1970s — one of the highest-ranked church officials globally to be successfully prosecuted for such offences. Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson was accused of concealing abuse by notorious pedophile priest Jim Fletcher in the New South Wales Hunter region by failing to report the allegations. His legal team reportedly made four attempts to have the case thrown […]
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 […]
