Catholic priests say they will face jail rather than break the seal of confession to report child sex abuse. The priests are responding to South Australia’s decision to join the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) to create laws to force Catholic priests to break the seal of confession, to report paedophiles to police. The new laws, Read more
A former judge of the Roman Rota, the Vatican’s highest appellate court, has accepted a plea bargain in an Italian criminal court. He faces a conditionally suspended sentence of one year and two months in prison on charges of sexual molestation and possession of child pornography. Read more
Lawyers representing sexual abuse victims in the United Kingdom say sexual abuse crime reporting should be mandatory. This would mean priests hearing confessions from abuse perpetrators would have to break the seal of the confessional. The lawyers have told Britain’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that failing to make reporting suspected abuse a Read more
Pope Francis has sharp words for Catholics who “proudly boast they are very Catholic” yet fail to pay their workers a fair wage. “How many times have we heard — all of us, around the neighbourhood and elsewhere — ‘to be a Catholic like that, it’s better to be an atheist?’” he asked a morning Read more
Abuse statistics presented at this week’s Vatican-led summit on protecting children from online pornography make dismal reading. One in four children experience physical abuse. One in five girls is sexually abused before she reaches the age of 18 and one in 12 boys. One in three children are victims of emotional abuse. Despite their various Read more
Facing reality about issues of child abuse is a crucial part of child protection, says Hans Zollner S.J. Father Zollner is both President of the Centre for Child Protection of the Pontifical Gregorian University and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He says the detailed report about allegations of sexual Read more
A former Waikato Catholic priest convicted and jailed for the sex abuse of young boys in the 1970s and 80s has admitted further historic offending. Mark Brown pleaded guilty to four representative charges when he appeared in Hamilton District Court on Tuesday. Continue reading
The Australian Anglican Church has had around 1,100 child abuse complaints reported against it in the past 35 years. A Government report says most children were aged around 11 when they were abused. Their publication about the Anglican Church comes a month after the Royal Commission into child abuse was told the Australian Catholic church Read more
Every time Anne Tolley and Bill English talk about the new Ministry for Vulnerable Children, or oppose an inquiry into the historical abuse of children in state care, it sticks like a knife in my guts. I am Ngāti Porou through my mother, and I’m Weira — Welsh — through my father. After spending 14 Read more
We have just emerged from what the media calls ‘the Catholic wrap up’ at the Royal Commission. This three-week hearing culminated in the joint appearance of the five most senior bishops in our Australian Church. They apologised not just for the sins of those church personnel who violated children, the most vulnerable members of our Read more