Pope Francis has appointed Mr Bill Kilgallon to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Kilgallon is the Director of the National Office for Professional Standards of the Catholic Church in New Zealand. Dr. Krysten Winter-Green, another New Zealander now resident in the United States, has also been appointed to the Commission. Bill has Read more
A report from the Australian Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council into sexual abuse has linked priestly celibacy and child abuse. It is the first time the Church has made such a link. However the finding is not a first step to ending celibacy for priests. The 40 page report touches briefly on celibacy, saying “Obligatory celibacy may also Read more
Pope Francis directly helped uncover three priests and a lay person in Spain suspected of child abuse. Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said that Pope Francis has taken a special interest in uncovering these men. It “was precisely the pope who has been most belligerent in bringing this case to light”, he said. Gerard O’Connell in Read more
One of the Pope’s key advisors has called for urgent action to be taken against a US bishop who shielded a priest who was a threat to children. Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley told US network CBS that the case of Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City is “a question the Holy See needs to address Read more
The Irish Catholic Church’s record on sex abuse has been cited in a sex scandal involving the Irish Republican Army. Irish political party Sinn Fein has been accused of covering up for IRA sex abusers by moving them from Northern Ireland to the Irish republic. Ireland’s Parliament recently debated the claims of Belfast woman Mairia Read more
Pope Francis has created a new commission to hear appeals of priests and bishops accused of what the Church considers grave crimes. These crimes include sexual abuse of minors, wrongful use of the sacrament of penance, heresy, apostasy and the attempted ordination of women. An edict approved by Francis establishes a new seven-member “college” inside Read more
Defectors from a Catholic community in Austria have described their circumstances there as a living hell. The Vatican has investigated allegations of abuse in The Work (Das Werk) based in Bregenz, but the results are not known. Both nuns and priests belong to the community, as well as non-ordained male and female members. A former Read more
Chicago archdiocese has released about 15,000 pages of previously secret files on clerical sex abuse in order to provide greater transparency. The documents detail interpersonal communications between victims, the priests and archdiocese officials. Making this information public comes after other documents were released in January as part of a settlement with victims. The archdiocese says Read more
In bureaucracies everywhere, when someone’s interests are threatened by a cycle of reform, one time-honoured resistance strategy is to dig up dirt on the reformers. For maximum effectiveness, the dirt should be related to a brewing crisis in which people are tempted to shoot first and ask questions later. Whatever its supernatural claims may be, Read more
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been granted its sought two-year extension. It will run for five years. That is appropriate. I predicted on the night Julia Gillard announced the commission that it would take five years to do its work. I am still worried about this extended federal royal Read more