California’s highest court has told six brothers they had waited too long to bring sexual abuse claims against a priest whom they allege molested them during the 1970’s. The opportunity to bring the claims was given during in 2003 when a one-year window for old complaints against priests was granted by the state. The court Read more
A string of Roman Catholic priests testified Wednesday in a landmark clergy-abuse case, saying they reported fellow priests to the archdiocese after finding them with pornography or in unhealthy relationships with children.
The priests, uncomfortably, are prosecution witnesses in the trial of a longtime supervisor in the Philadelphia archdiocese, Monsignor William Lynn. The former secretary for clergy is charged with endangering children by allegedly helping the church cover up abuse complaints.
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Clergy sexual abuse of children in Ireland had “opened many wounds” causing people to lose trust in their pastors, the Vatican said in its report into Ireland’s child abuse. Fruit of a year-long investigation, the report, published on Wednesday, acknowledged the Irish Catholic Church had failed many innocent young people and “those who should have Read more
At least 10 teenage boys or young men under the age of 21 were surgically castrated “to get rid of homosexuality” while in the care of the Dutch Roman Catholic Church in the 1950s. Evidence of the castrations has emerged amid controversy that it was not included in the findings of an official investigation into Read more
Catholic Primate Cardinal Sean Brady and representatives of a number of religious orders met victims and survivors of child abuse in Armagh today.
After the three-hour meeting, Cardinal Brady said he had apologised wholeheartedly and without reservation for the abuse the victims had suffered as children.
He said he found the meeting profoundly moving and reaffirmed the church’s committment to co-operate fully with the inquiry into institutional abuse set up by the Stormont Assembly.
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Despite its best attempts, the hacker collective “Anonymous” was not able to bring the complete Vatican website down. As reported in Friday’s edition of CathNews, the Vatican’s website was off line on Wednesday 7 March, allegedly under attack from Anonymous. However, despite launching an attack for several hours, Anonymous was unsuccessful in completely shutting the Read more
The Vatican website was off line Wednesday for a number of hours, allegedly attacked by the Italian branch of the hacker collective Anonymous. “Anonymous has now decided to lay siege to your site in response to the doctrines, liturgies and the precepts absurd and anachronistic that your organization is for profit (Roman Apostolic Church) propagates Read more
The director of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has admitted the organisation has published false information and is unsure whether the group employs licensed counselors. David Clohessy was answering questions in court, amid accusation the group had printed restricted information in a press release. Asked by lawyers, “Has SNAP to your knowledge Read more
Reports on sexual abuse from the seven visitation teams sent to Ireland by the Vatican last year are on course to be published this spring, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said.
The teams, which visited Ireland’s four Catholic archdioceses, seminaries and male and female religious congregations, all completed and sent their reports to Rome by the end of last year. The apostolic visitation was ordered after publication of the Murphy report into clerical sex abuse.
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The sexual abuse scandal is not over according to the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin. Speaking on 60 Minutes program, Martin said “There’s a real danger today of people saying, ‘The child abuse scandal is over. Let’s bury it. Let’s move on,’” he told CBS report Bob Simon. “It isn’t over. Child protection and the protection Read more