12 June 2019

Church’s Continuing Saga with Sexual Issues


The Malleus Maleficarum Series




Southern Baptists Vote To Hold Churches More Accountable For Mishandling Abuse Claims
12 Jun 2019
Delegates representing some 47,000 Southern Baptist churches gathered at the Convention Complex in Birmingham, Ala., approved an amendment allowing individual churches to be expelled from the Convention if they mishandle or cover up sexual abuse cases. The vote comes as U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meet in Baltimore to address issues of accountability in the Catholic Church's own long-running abuse scandal. The Southern Baptists have long sought to dismiss similar allegations in their midst. The change in the Convention's constitution follows reports in recent months of widespread abuse by Southern Baptist clergy.

More than 300 Pennsylvania priests abused 1,000 children over decades
15 Aug 2018
More than 300 “predator priests” were found to have committed sexual abuse in Pennsylvania, harming more than 1,000 children, according to a grand jury report. The near-900-page report is the result of one of the largest US investigations into sexual abuse in the Catholic church. In painful detail, it showcases how for decades one of the most powerful churches in the world hid the abuse and suffering of children. The incidents described include a priest who impregnated a minor and helped her get an abortion, then was allowed to stay in the ministry; a priest who confessed to the oral and anal rape of at least 15 boys, including one as young as seven; and a priest who collected the urine, pubic hair and menstrual blood of girls he abused in his home. Because the priests had largely escaped public accountability and in some cases were promoted, the report said: “Until that changes, we think it is too early to close the book on the Catholic church sex scandal.”


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Chile police raid Catholic church HQ in sex abuse investigation
14 Aug 2018
Chilean authorities have raided the headquarters of the Catholic church’s Episcopal Conference as part of a widespread investigation into sex abuse committed by members of the Marist Brothers order, prosecutors said. The Marists operate in dozens of countries around the world. The pope denounced a “culture of abuse and cover-up” in Chile’s Catholic church and said he was ashamed that neither he nor Chilean church leaders truly ever listened to victims as the abuse scandal spread. Chilean prosecutors summoned the archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, to appear in court and testify about the alleged cover-up of years of abuse.

LA Cardinal Mahony 'stripped of duties' over sex abuse
01 Feb 2013
A retired Los Angeles cardinal accused of mismanaging a child sex abuse crisis has been stripped of all administrative and public duties by his successor. The Los Angeles archdiocese, the largest in the US, has released thousands of pages of files on priests accused of child molestation. The Catholic Church in the US has been embroiled in a series of child sex scandals over the past two decades. A Church-commissioned report said more than 4,000 US priests had faced sexual abuse allegations since the early 1950s, in cases involving more than 10,000 children - mostly boys.

Jimmy Savile: Catholic Church bid to remove papal knighthood
27 Oct 2012
The papal knighthood given to Jimmy Savile "should not have been bestowed", a Vatican spokesman has told the BBC. The Catholic Church in England and Wales confirmed it has written to the Holy See to ask if the honor can be posthumously removed. Savile, who may have abused some 300 people, was granted the award in 1990. Savile was made a Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II for his charity work. It is one of the highest awards the Pope can bestow.

Irish Catholic bishop in apology over pedophile priests
05 Sep 2012
The Catholic bishop of Clonfert in east Galway has apologized for moving two priests from one parish to another in the 1990s after they had abused children. Of all the allegations 142 were made against the Irish Province of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.

US Catholic priest convicted of sex abuse cover-up
22 Jun 2012
A high-ranking Philadelphia Roman Catholic Church official has been found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child in a sex abuse case. Prosecutors alleged that Lynn, who supervised hundreds of priests, helped cover-up child sex abuse, often by transferring priests to new parishes. He is now the highest-ranking US Roman Catholic official convicted in connection in a wider scandal.

US 'radical' nuns to hold Vatican talks over criticism
11 Jun 2012
Leaders of the largest group of US nuns are due to meet Vatican officials in a bid to defuse an escalating row. A Vatican report in April accused the nuns of adopting "certain radical feminist themes" and of ignoring official church teaching. The Vatican report accused the Leadership Conference of taking positions on issues ranging from homosexuality to the all-male priesthood that undermined Catholic teaching. It proposed replacing the group's leadership with three bishops that would have the authority to rewrite the organization’s statutes, meeting agendas and liturgical texts.

Vatican critical of US nun's book on sexual ethics
04 Jun 2012
The Vatican has sharply criticized a book written by a US nun and theologian on sexual ethics. The Holy See's orthodoxy office said the 2005 book, Just Love, by Sister Margaret Farley posed "grave harm" to the faithful. It said her ideas on masturbation, homosexual acts, homosexual unions and remarriage were in "direct contradiction" with Catholic teaching. The move came after a Vatican report criticized the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, whose 1,500 members represent some 80% of about 57,000 American nuns, saying that they were becoming feminist and politicized, promoting radical ideas and challenging bishops.

Pope defends celibacy rule amid sex abuse scandals
12 Mar 2010
Pope Benedict XVI has defended celibacy among priests, saying it was a sign of "full devotion" to the Catholic Church. He was speaking at a theological conference before meeting Germany's top bishop for talks about a new crisis over the sexual abuse of children. Europe's Catholic pedophile scandal now affects institutions in Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany. The Archbishop of Vienna had suggested that the Church should examine celibacy and priests' training. But the Pope said on Friday that celibacy is "the sign of full devotion, the entire commitment to the Lord and to the 'Lord's business', an expression of giving oneself to God and to others". He defended "the value of sacred celibacy, which in the Latin Church is required for ordination and is held in great regard by Eastern Churches".

Vatican forced to defend itself over abuse cases
10 Mar 2010
After recent revelations of widespread abuse in Ireland, and claims of similar mistreatment of children by priests in Austria and Germany. Catholic bishops in the Netherlands have now set up an independent inquiry to look into allegations there. The allegations from Germany are particularly sensitive, because the Pope was born in the country, and because they include a choir led by his brother Georg. Reports surfaced last month that Catholic priests had sexually abused more than 170 children at Jesuit schools in Germany. Those have been followed by fresh allegations of abuse at three Catholic schools in Bavaria, and within a boys' choir that was directed for 30 years by Monsignor Georg Ratzinger. In Austria the head of a Benedictine monastery in Salzburg has resigned after admitting to sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy more than four decades ago.


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