Chile’s Catholic Church has asked for a drastic solution that could include resignations. The call came a day after Pope Francis acknowledged “grave mistakes” in handling a sexual abuse crisis and summoned Church leaders to Rome. At a meeting of Church leadership on Chile’s central coast, Santiago Silva, the president of the Episcopal Conference, said Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Sex abuse’
Catholic groups in Australia demand leadership change
Monday, March 26th, 2018Catholic groups meeting in Canberra last Friday have demanded a change Catholic Church leadership. They say the current leaders are “locked in a misogynistic and unaccountable culture” that has failed to adequately respond to the child sexual abuse scandal and is denying the need for urgent reform. Read more
Catholic aid organisations respond to rape, abuse claims
Thursday, February 22nd, 2018
Catholic aid organisations are renewing their commitment to protect the vulnerable. Their promise follows an investigation into international aid organisation Oxfam The Times newspaper found Oxfam UK workers demanded sex for money following a catastrophic earthquake in Haiti in 2010. The newspaper also accused Oxfam officials of financial mismanagement, harassment, bullying and negligent supervision. “We are Read more
Not just George Pell is on trial
Thursday, October 12th, 2017
Here is the lead role in the tragedy – Cardinal George Pell – having to endure the humiliation of facing charges for alleged sexual abuse. The October 6th “mention” at the Melbourne Magistrates Court did not specify charges but reported that there would be up to 50 witnesses testifying in court proceedings. The “mention” occurs Read more
Why the seal of the confessional will remain
Monday, August 21st, 2017
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published a 2000-page three volume Criminal Justice Report. One of its recommendations is that the states and territories “create a criminal offence of failure to report targeted at child sexual abuse in an institutional context”. If such an offence were created, those of us who Read more
Cardinal George Pell charged: what a mess
Thursday, July 6th, 2017
In December, the Australian Royal Commission into child sex abuse in institutions will make its final report. But already enough has been revealed in interim reports to suggest that it will make very challenging reading for Catholics not just in Australia but worldwide. And a recently published book has focused on victims, responses by Church Read more
The destruction of Cardinal Pell
Monday, July 3rd, 2017
Two years ago, when this story came out, I asked some friends and fellow journalists, “Is this the trigger-pull on Pell?” At the time, of course, his name wasn’t even being mentioned. But as the events unfolded that would later be referred to as “Vatileaks II,” media reports of new allegations of financial mismanagement at the Vatican left Read more
Pope replaces Vatican’s doctrinal chief
Monday, July 3rd, 2017
Pope Francis has replaced the conservative Cardinal Gerhard Müller as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with the Jesuit Archbishop Luis Ladaria. Ladaria, who is 73, has previously served as the office’s secretary. He is a Spanish Jesuit theologian. For the past five years Müller has been the prefect of the Read more
Clerical sex abuse in Australia: can you believe the statistics?
Monday, February 13th, 2017
The headlines in Australian newspapers this week have not been kind to the Catholic Church. Gail Furness, the lawyer for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, delivered a blistering speech outlining its findings to date about Catholic dioceses, religious orders and institutions. Afterwards, the Sydney Morning Herald editorialised: “Now we know too, that Read more
Psychiatrist condemns “abusive” Vatican sex-ed program
Friday, September 9th, 2016
A sex education program recently released by the Vatican has been condemned by a renowned psychiatrist who has worked with victims of priestly sexual abuse and priest abusers. He says it is abusive and “the most dangerous threat to Catholic youth” he has seen in the past 40 years. The gravely concerned psychiatrist is Dr. Read more