Pope Francis has revived his sex abuse advisory commission but without a Kiwi member. – Originally reported 19 February 2018 The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors sat for 3 years before its term expired two months ago. In freshening the commission Pope Francis added nine new people to its ranks, and re-appointed only Read more
A Queensland Catholic priest accused of child sex abuse has had all charges against him dropped. Father David Lancini’s lawyer, Justin Greggery, told the court that claims Lancini abused a boy in the 1970s were either fabricated or mistaken. Lying collusion Detectives and witnesses colluded in Lancini’s arrest last December. Greggery told the court witnesses Read more
Christopher Saunders, a 74-year-old retired former Catholic bishop of Broome, appeared in the Broome Magistrates court on Thursday facing multiple charges. The BBC reports he has been charged with rape and a string of historical sexual offences, some against children. Saunders pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was granted bail. Saunders will appear again Read more
Among the anti-communist propaganda that spread through Italy in the early years after World War II was the threat that the Cossacks would soon be watering their horses in the fountains of St Peter’s Square. It was a time when some feared for the Church’s survival. But back then, the Vatican enjoyed religious, moral, cultural Read more
The Catholic Church throughout the world continues to deal, country by county and at various paces, with the sexual abuse crisis. In France, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) released a shocking report last year that highlighted the systemic nature and extent of sexual abuse committed in the Church since 1950. Read more
One of the Catholic Church’s leading experts on sex abuse and its prevention has given a major lecture in Paris at the invitation of the French bishops. “I’m going to scandalise you,” Father Hans Zollner SJ warned his audience as he started his talk about the clergy sex abuse crisis. “The Church’ does not exist. Read more
Better guidelines are needed to protect the sacrament of reconciliation as a “channel of grace” for sexual abuse victims, says Jesuit Father Hans Zollner. “If the church did more to help confessors be empathetic listeners as well as skilled interpreters of the church’s moral teaching, it would make it clearer that the sacrament of reconciliation Read more
Perth’s Archbishop Timothy Costelloe has spoken out about new confessional legislation passed by the Western Australian State Parliament. The confessional legislation removes civil law protections to the confidentiality of the seal of confession. The confessional experience is a personal encounter between that person and Christ, Costelloe wrote in a pastoral letter published last week. He Read more
Allegations in the Polish media of a former papal secretary’s negligence have resulted in an envoy from the Holy See making a ten-day visit to Poland. The Vatican’s embassy in Poland says the subject of the investigation is retired Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz (now aged 82). Prior to his retirement he was the archbishop of Krakow Read more
A US diocese cited COVID-19 and the subsequent “precipitous decline in revenue” for halting its participation in an independent compensation program for victims of clerical abuse. The Diocese of Camden, New Jersey released a statement last week saying it “is fast approaching a point where it will not be able to continue to borrow the Read more