The
Malleus Maleficarum Series
More than 300 Pennsylvania priests abused 1,000 children over decades
LA Cardinal Mahony
'stripped of duties' over sex abuse
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.”
Preacher
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.
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.
