Tag: Vatican

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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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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Catholic Church’s Pope Francis changes Church law to make reporting sex abuse obligatory

  by Ella IDE Agence France Presse VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Catholic Church’s Pope Francis on Thursday passed a landmark new measure to oblige those who know about sex abuse in the Catholic Church to report it to their superiors, in a move which could bring countless new cases to light. Every diocese in the world will now be obliged to have a system for the reporting of abuse, under a new law published by […]

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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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Pope promises ‘healing’ of Catholic Church amid sex abuse scandal, admits guilty priests had not been punished

  MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Pope Francis said a process of “healing” had started within the Catholic Church in the wake of a pedophilia summit, but acknowledged guilty priests had not been punished. The Argentine pontiff last week issued stringent child abuse legislation for Vatican City employees as part of the Church’s bid to address a wave of sex abuse allegations against priests. In an interview broadcast on Sunday with Spanish TV channel La Sexta, […]

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French sex abuse victims seek answers from top Vatican official

  LYON, France (AFP) — A pedophilia victims’ group is calling for a Vatican cardinal to be stripped of his immunity so he can face prosecution over the cover-up of alleged sex abuse by a French priest, one of the victims said Wednesday The announcement comes a day after Catholic Church’s Pope Francis rejected the resignation of a French cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was given a six-month suspended jail sentence for failing to report the […]

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Catholic Church’s Pope Francis rejects resignation of French cardinal convicted for sex abuse cover-up

  LYON, France (AFP) — Catholic Church’s Pope Francis has rejected the resignation of French cardinal Philippe Barbarin who was handed a six-month suspended jail sentence this month for failing to report sex abuse by a priest under his authority, prompting surprise among Church leaders and condemnation from victims. The pope’s decision, announced by Barbarin in a statement and confirmed by the Vatican, comes ahead of a judicial appeal of the case. But it 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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Convicted French cardinal Barbarin to tender resignation to pope

  by Catherine MARCIANO Agence France Presse VATICAN CITY (AFP) — French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who received a six-month suspended jail sentence for failing to report sex abuse by a priest under his authority, is to meet the Catholic Church’s Pope Francis at the Vatican to tender his resignation on Monday. The private meeting is expected to take place around 0900 GMT, according to his diocese, with the pontiff to decide within weeks whether to […]

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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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Judge says disgraced Australian cardinal Pell may die in prison

  MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Disgraced Australian Cardinal George Pell “may not live to be released from prison”, the judge warned a Melbourne court Wednesday as the sentencing of the 77-year-old for child sex crimes began. Pell, the most senior Catholic clergyman ever found guilty of child sex abuse, faces a maximum 50 years in prison for assaulting two choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral in 1996-97. The Australian cleric has been in custody since late […]

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