A US priest has been reinstated in his parish after a four-month investigation found “insufficient reason to suspect” he sexually abused children. The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago confirmed Chicago priest Michael Pfleger has been released and will be reinstated. Pfleger is a nationally known activist. Four months ago when the archdiocese asked Pfleger to step Read more
The Center for Child Protection (CCP), founded in 2012, is to have a new name with a broader focus on understanding abuse cases in the Catholic Church. The Institute of Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC) will open next September at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year. Its purpose is to Read more
The Royal Commission has just made public the details of its inquiry into the Catholic Church. During its investigation, the Royal Commission will select themes, settings or institutions as case studies of abuse. It may conduct research and examine relevant matters in public hearings, roundtables, hui and fono. What happened and why? In considering the Read more
The head of the Fiji Catholic Church has made an apology for the behaviour of Catholic priests, religious and teachers who allegedly abused Fijian children. Archbishop Peter Loy Chong was responding to a news report on TVNZ by pacific correspondent, Barbara Dreaver. For the last year, 1 NEWS has been investigating claims of historic sexual Read more
Priests in the Polish diocese of Kalisz have refused to sign letters of loyalty to their bishop after a child abuse cover-up. More and more Catholics in Poland are calling on the Church to properly investigate crimes. The documentary “Hide and Seek” by Marek and Tomasz Sekielski, which was watched by almost 7 million people Read more
A paternalistic attitude within the Church that devalues laypeople and puts clergy on a pedestal is worse than clericalism says German Jesuit priest Hans Zollner. Zollner is one of the Church’s leading experts in child protection. There are two sides to this problem, Zollner says. One is with “the hierarchy not involving the gifts of Read more
Ireland’s former president Mary McAleese has written to the Pope saying she’ll leave the the Catholic Church if it is found the Vatican “failed to act to protect members of the L’Arche community” from the community’s founder Jean Vanier. In her letter to the pope (which she published on her personal website on 26 February) Read more
A group of clergy abuse survivors gathered in Rome on Feb. 21, one year after the Vatican summit of bishops on clerical sex abuse, to accuse Pope Francis of knowing about the abuse of Argentine deaf children by an Italian priest but not acting to stop it. The group, who included some of the Argentinian Read more
It has emerged that a second nun of the Missionaries of Jesus has accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jullundur of sexual harassment. The bishop has been charged with raping a nun repeatedly over the course of two years, allegations he denies. The first nun, who is a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, has said Read more
German bishops are looking for ways to halt the massive exodus from the Church in Germany caused by the clerical abuse crisis. The bishops’ conference launched a two-year “synodal procedure” for church reform last weekend, on the first Sunday of Advent. Working together with the lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), special synodal candles Read more