Priest sexual offenders came from seminary classes in the 1940’s and 1950’s who were not trained to confront the upheavals of the 1960’s when behavioural norms were upended, researchers hired by the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference have concluded. The report conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, also found few priest offenders were pedophiles abusers were not Read more
Philadelphia sex-abuse chair, Ana Maria Catanzaro, has blasted her Cardinal, Justin Rigali and his bishops for their response to the sexual abuse problem in the archdiocese. Writing in Commonweal, a lay Catholic magazine, Catanzaro wrote the Philadelphia cardinal “failed miserably at being open and transparent.” “What will it take for bishops to accept that their attitude Read more
On Monday 16 May the Vatican is issuing a new sexual abuse protocol document, giving guidelines for bishops to follow when dealing with cases of sexual abuse of children by priests. The letter comes from the Vatican’s top-ranking Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). CDF head, Cardinal William Levada said the circular would include Read more
An 82-year-old sex abuser priest found ministering in Canada no longer has permission to work in the Archdiocese of Ottawa. The Roman Catholic priest who served jail time for sexually molesting two under 16 year old girls in the 1970s has been ministering as a priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Ottawa, for at Read more
The Christian Brothers in North America have filed for bankruptcy amid mounting claims of sexual abuse against its US and Canadian members. The bulk of the claims comes from the Seattle area, said Michael Petterson, a lawyer for the Catholic Archdiocese in Seattle. “It’s a sad day. We’re very disappointed that it reached this level,” Read more
John Paul II was a rock star of a pope, arguably the most effective ambassador of religious belief in a highly secular age. Yet in the years since his death in April 2005 an undercurrent of doubt and concern has emerged related to his handling of the problem of priestly sex abuse, the most serious Read more
Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, the head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, described former-Bishop Roger Vangheluwe’s TV confession that he had sexually abused two of his nephews as “inappropriate and shocking”. During the interview Vangheluwe described the abuse with one of his nephews as “a kind of game”. Disturbed by Vangheluwe’s detached and vacant tone, Archbishop Leonard said “He should not Read more
The number of new credible accusations of clerical abuse in the United States dropped in 2010, however more dioceses are receiving “management letters”. So says the Report on the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which also highlights 428 new credible allegations of child sexual abuse were lodged against 345 Read more
Archbishop Timothy Dolan defended comments he made on his blog that the rate of sexual abuse among New York City public school teachers is ten times higher than that among priests. In his blog post of March 18 Dolan described a meeting with a man at Denver airport who would not shake his hand and Read more
Decorating a Christmas tree or going on an Easter egg hunt could soon be illegal activities in Childcare Centres across Australia. New legislation, to be enacted next year, makes it an offense for teachers to put students having a tantrum into “time out” or giving them any form of inappropriate discipline. It’s the same law, the Education Read more