The discovery of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua’s 1994 order to shred a memo about 35 Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests suspected of molesting children is no reason to dismiss the case against one of his key aides, a judge ruled Monday.
Read the article...Posts Tagged ‘Sexual abuse’
Late Philadelphia Cardinal has predator priest list shredded
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
Defense lawyers for Philadelphia diocesan official, Monsignor William Lynn, claim Philadelphia Cardinal, the late Anthony Bevilacqua ordered the shredding of Lynn’s predator priests list and are asking for the case against Lynn to be dropped. The lawyers contend that the real criminals are Bevilacqua and his advisors, and they are either dead or have not been charged in conjunction Read more
Sex abuse case against Vatican withdrawn
Friday, February 17th, 2012
A high profile United States sex abuse lawyer, Jeffrey Anderson, has withdrawn a sex abuse case which held responsible Pope Benedict and senior church officials. The Vatican’s US attorney, Jeffrey S. Lena, welcomed the decision saying the case was “held together by no more than a mendacious web of allegations of internal conspiracy.” The case was filed at the Read more
USA schools facing Catholic Church-like wave of sexual abuse?
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012The Miramonte School scandal could be a wakeup call about the prevalence of sexual abuse in schools nationwide, experts say – adding that scandals could sweep through the education world the way they did though the Catholic Church.
Read the article...Vatican-backed Symposium on clerical sexual abuse
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Last week Bishops, Religious and mental health experts met at the Pontifical Gregorian University for a Vatican-backed symposium on clerical sexual abuse. Called “Toward Healing and Renewal” — the aim of the Symposium was to change the culture of how the church deals with cases of pedophile priests. At the end of the meeting a new internet-based Read more
Dutch bishop blamed for ‘organising’ paedophiles
Friday, December 23rd, 2011Bishop and leader of a “gang” of paedophiles: the prelate Philippe Bär (who headed the most important diocese in the Netherlands from 1983 to 1993) is suspected of offering organisational support to an association which intended to sexually abuse minors and to take part in such acts.
Read the article...Dutch bishops apologise to 20,000 victims of sexual abuse
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
The Catholic bishops in the Netherlands have offered “sincere apologies” to more than 20,000 victims of sexual abuse in the Netherlands. Archbishop of Utrecht Wim Eijk apologised to victims on behalf of the entire Dutch Catholic church. He said the report “fills us with shame and sorrow.” “It’s terrible.” Eijk’s apology comes after a damning Read more
Sex abuse-claim priest worked on for 10 years
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011An unpublished chapter of the Cloyne Report reveals that a priest at the centre of multiple abuse complaints was effectively left in unrestricted ministry for more than a decade.
Alleged victims of the priest — known by the pseudonym ‘Fr Ronat’ — are not expected to receive the full Cloyne Report and its unpublished chapter until shortly before it is formally released by Justice Minister Alan Shatter on Monday.
The High Court yesterday cleared the way for the suspended chapter of the hard-hitting report into the handling of clerical abuse complaints in the Cork diocese to finally be published.
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Ireland Government u-turns on 2012 papal visit
Friday, December 16th, 2011
In a surprise statement, Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and Deputy Prime Minister, Eamon Gilmore, said Ireland would respond positively if Pope Benedict made a state visit. Gilmore was addressing the Foreign Affairs Committee on the closure of embassies in the Vatican, Timor and Iran. He took the opportunity to re-state that the reason for closing Read more
Irish Archbishop who dies in ’73 is linked to abuse
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011The former archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, widely regarded as the most powerful Catholic prelate in modern Irish history, stands accused of serial child sexual abuse, The Irish Times newspaper said Thursday.
Two specific complaints and a separate unspecified “concern” against an unidentified cleric were reported to the Murphy Commission, a state-sponsored investigation into the handling of clerical sexual abuse of children in the Dublin archdiocese. The newspaper reported that Archbishop McQuaid, who retired in 1972 and died a year later, was the unidentified cleric.
The commission published its main report in 2009, but it said that “due to human error” the latest allegations emerged only in a supplementary report published in July. This does not name Archbishop McQuaid, but the newspaper is adamant that the allegations of abuse contained within it refer to the archbishop. One allegation is regarding abuse of a 12-year-old boy in 1961.
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