Mr Bill Kilgallon, the executive officer of the New Zealand Catholic Church’s National Office for Professional Standards, says he expects more people will come forward with allegations as Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse gets under way. He says that since June the church has received five new claims of abuse Read more
World-famous scientist, Richard Dawkins has attracted a lot of negative attention recently by suggesting that the “mild pedophilia” he experienced as a boy wasn’t really such a big deal. In a recent interview, he recalled how one of his teachers “pulled me on his knee and put his hand inside my shorts.” Dawkins went on Read more
A former Catholic brother has won his appeal to have his extradition order to Australia reheard in the Christchurch District Court. Bernard Kevin McGrath has been fighting an application from police in New South Wales to extradite him since October last year. In a High Court judgement released on Tuesday, Justice Whata said he was Read more
Police are refusing to accept they got it wrong by prosecuting a popular and eccentric Greymouth teacher for indecent assault – even though the case has been thrown out of court. Andrew McCarthy, of John Paul II High School, says his experience should serve as a warning to all teachers of what can happen because Read more
A lawyer in the United States this week released the names of five priests, a nun and a choir director linked to clergy sex abuse cases. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian released the names on Wednesday. The lawyer periodically releases new names publicly, and is highly critical of Catholic church officials for what he says is their Read more
The archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has ordered a review of all the files on dead clergy who served in the diocese from 1950 to the present so that an independent investigator can determine whether they may have sexually abused children. The move comes five weeks after the Church of England’s General Synod apologised Read more
The reverberations can be heard nationwide. As church employees and volunteers receive notices requiring them to attend safe-environment trainings, their responses have become familiar: “Again?” “Didn’t we just do that?” “I went through this where I teach; do I need to do it in the parish too?” “I barely come in contact with kids; why Read more
An appeal by a former Catholic brother against a decision to extradite him to Australia to face hundreds of child sex abuse charges has been delayed. Bernard Kevin McGrath’s appeal was scheduled to be heard at the High Court in Christchurch on 15 August, but has been adjourned until 5 September. Continue reading
An American man who claimed he was sexually abused by a priest nearly 50 years ago has withdrawn his appeal of a ruling that said the Vatican did not employ the priest and is not liable for damages. Lawyer Jeff Anderson named the Vatican as one of the defendants in the 2002 lawsuit he filed Read more
The Bishop of Aberdeen, Hugh Gilbert, on Sunday issued an apology for the abuse allegedly suffered by young boys at a Scottish boarding school over 30 years. “It is a most bitter, and distressing and shameful thing that in this former Abbey school there were a small number of baptised, consecrated, ordained Christian men, who Read more