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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 […]
The Catholic Church’s Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a prominent US cardinal who is accused of sexually abusing a teenager nearly five decades ago, the Vatican said Saturday. Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, was removed from the ministry in June after a review board found there was “credible” evidence that he had assaulted the teen while working as a priest in New York in the early 1970s. The Vatican, in […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell on Tuesday became the highest-ranked Catholic ever to be sent to trial for sex offences, adding to a series scandals facing the church globally. Here is a rundown of notable cases: – Australia – Cardinal George Pell, the third highest member of the Vatican hierarchy, has been ordered to stand trial on “multiple” historical sex charges, which he denies. His case coincided with a public […]
by Daniel De Carteret Agence France Presse MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — The Vatican’s finance chief Cardinal George Pell Tuesday became the highest-ranked Catholic to be sent for trial over historic sex offences, as the elderly priest vowed to fight the charges. The 76-year-old was impassive throughout the hearing in the Australian city of Melbourne that ordered him to face a jury on “multiple” charges, although half of the allegations against him — including some […]
VATICAN CITY, Holy See (AFP) — Pope Francis admitted Wednesday he had made “grave mistakes in the assessment and perception of the situation” in Chile after reading the findings of an investigation into sexual abuse committed by the clergy in the country. Francis said in a letter to Chilean Bishops released by the Vatican that he intended to summon them to Rome to discuss the investigation, which involves Bishop Juan Barros’ alleged cover-up of […]
VATICAN CITY (AFP) — The Vatican said on Saturday a monsignor who was a former advisor at its US embassy in Washington has been arrested on suspicion of watching child sex abuse. A Vatican statement said that an arrest warrant had been issued for Carlo Alberto Capella, which was carried out by the Vatican Gendarmerie. “The accused is being detained in a cell in the barracks of the Gendarmerie Corps, available to the judicial authorities,” […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Pope Francis has declined to apologize for the abuse of indigenous Canadians at church-run boarding schools, drawing a polite rebuke Wednesday from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In an open letter, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote: “After carefully considering the request and extensive dialogue with the Bishops of Canada, (the Pope) felt that he could not personally respond.” At the same time, however, the pontiff encouraged bishops to engage […]
