by Pierre PRATABUY / Alexandre GROSBOIS Agence France Presse by Pierre PRATABUY / Alexandre GROSBOIS Agence France Presse LYON, France (AFP) — The archbishop of Lyon Thursday announced he was resigning just hours after being handed a six-month suspended jail sentence for failing to report sex abuse in a case that has rocked the French Catholic Church and added to the Vatican’s woes. Philippe Barbarin, 68, is the most senior French cleric caught up […]
Tag: Vatican
Convicted Australian cardinal sued over alleged abuse
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Convicted Australian Cardinal George Pell faced a fresh legal challenge Thursday after a civil suit was filed against him for further alleged abuse in the 1970s. Pell — the most senior Vatican official to be found guilty of child sex crimes — is currently in detention awaiting sentencing for assaulting two choirboys in Melbourne in the 1990s. He maintains his innocence and an appeal is scheduled for June. Pell had […]
French court to rule on cardinal accused of sex abuse cover-up
LYON, France (AFP) — A French court on Thursday will deliver its verdict in the case of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, accused of covering up sexual abuse of minors by one of his priests. The 68-year-old archbishop and five former aides went on trial in Lyon at a time when the Catholic Church has been hit by abuse scandals in countries as far afield as Australia, Chile and the United States. The outcome of the […]
Embattled Vatican envoy faces new sex assault claim in Canada
MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — Vatican diplomat Luigi Ventura — who is already under investigation in France over alleged sexual assault — is now facing a similar complaint in Canada, the Vatican embassy in Ottawa said Thursday. Luigi Ventura, currently the Vatican’s envoy to France, has been accused of molesting an official at the Paris mayor’s office. The 74-year-old Italian archbishop served as the envoy to Canada from 2001 to 2009. He now faces a “single” […]
Disgraced Australian Catholic Cardinal Pell behind bars for child sex crimes
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Cardinal George Pell was ordered held in custody Wednesday following his historic conviction for child sex crimes, capping an extraordinary fall from grace for one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church. Prosecutors told a pre-sentencing hearing that Pell, the most senior Catholic cleric ever convicted for child sex abuse, faces a maximum 50 years in prison for five charges of sexual assault against two choirboys at Melbourne’s […]
Australian Catholic cardinal tries to post bail after conviction on child sex crimes, met by angry protesters
By Agence France-Presse MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Angry protesters called Cardinal George Pell a “maggot” and a “monster” Wednesday as he arrived in court, possibly for the last time as a free man, in a last-ditch push for bail while he appeals his historic conviction for child sex crimes. Once one of Pope Francis’ closest advisors, Pell is facing up to 25 years in prison for five charges of sexual and indecent assault on […]
Top Vatican cleric Cardinal Pell convicted of child sex crimes
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Australian Cardinal George Pell, who helped elect popes and ran the Vatican’s finances, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two choirboys, a court said Tuesday, becoming the most senior Catholic cleric ever convicted of child sex crimes. An Australian court found Pell guilty by a trial jury on one count of sexual abuse and four counts of indecent assault of two boys at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in […]
Pope’s vow to battle child sex abuse fails to appease victims
by Ella Ide Agence France Presse VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Catholic Church’s Pope Francis on Sunday vowed to tackle every single case of sexual abuse by priests, comparing paedophilia to “human sacrifice”, but drew an angry response from victims. As the pope promised an “all-out battle” against abusive priests at the end of the landmark Vatican summit on the issue, his critics dismissed his speech as a “stunning letdown”. And when he blamed the […]
Pope compares child sex abuse to ‘human sacrifice’
Pope Francis on Sunday compared the sexual abuse of children to human sacrifice as he addressed the Catholic church’s top bishops at the end of a landmark summit to tackle paedophilia. “Our work has made us realise once again that the gravity of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors is, and historically has been, a widespread phenomenon in all cultures and societies,” he said. “I am reminded of the cruel religious practice, once widespread […]
Polish pedophile priests exposed in new report
WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — A foundation supporting victims of pedophile priests in Poland on Thursday released a report documenting nearly 400 cases of sex abuse by clergymen in the staunchly Catholic country. The publication of the 27-page report, which activists presented to Catholic Church’s Pope Francis on Wednesday, coincided with the pontiff gathering the world’s top Catholic bishops at the Vatican at a summit on tackling clerical sex abuse. Images broadcast on Polish television […]
Catholic Archbishop Tagle admits clergy abuse, cover-up in Vatican meeting; cites need for healing, justice
(Eagle News) – Manila Archbishop Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle admitted publicly in a world meeting of Catholic bishops on Thursday, February 21, in Vatican City on how priests had sexually abused children and minors, and stressed the need for all priests to “bring healing” to the wounds they had inflicted. Tagle was the first to give the formal talk in the meeting called by the Catholic Church’s Pope Francis to address the widespread abuse […]
Catholic Pope demands action at landmark Vatican summit on abuse
by Catherine Marciano with Ella Ide in Rome Agence France Presse VATICAN CITY (AFP) — The Catholic Church’s Pope Francis on Thursday opened a landmark Vatican summit on fighting child sex abuse, calling for “concrete measures” and handing top Catholic bishops a roadmap to tackling paedophilia in the church. “The holy people of God looks to us, and expects from us not simple and predictable condemnations, but concrete and effective measures to be undertaken. […]





