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clergy sexual abuse
Priest Sex Abuse Investigation Going Ahead in Belgium Despite Illegal Raid
By Politics Daily Staff - Politics DailyEven though a June raid of Catholic Church offices in Belgium has been ruled illegal, the government says an investigation of a sex abuse scandal involving priests can go forward. At the same time, an independent Belgian commission looking into charges of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy says it has received testimony from hundreds of victims and that witnesses say widespread abuse over decades led to at least 13 suicides. The commission, known as the Adriaenssens Commission after its chairman, Peter Adriaenssens, disbanded after the June 24 raid because authorities also seized the ...
Sinéad O'Connor: Pop Star Mom Is An Unlikely Prophet for a Scandalized Church
By Rory Fitzgerald - Politics DailyDUBLIN -- They say that God has a sense of humor. Some might be surprised, or even amused, by the idea that Sinéad O'Connor is now a powerful voice for renewal in the scandal-hit Catholic Church. Although she is often imagined to be hostile to Catholicism, she in fact holds a deep affection for the faith: "I think the essence of Catholicism is beautiful. . . . What I would love to see is for Catholicism to survive this, so that true Catholicism can shine." In the early 1990s the stark, ethereal beauty of her voice enchanted the world, catapulting her to fame. But she came crashing down ...
Pope Appoints Panel to Investigate Ireland Abuse
By not in system - AOL NewsVATICAN CITY (May 31) -- Pope Benedict XVI on Monday appointed nine prelates, including the archbishops of Boston and New York, to investigate child abuse in Ireland's Catholic institutions. The pope urged the Irish church to support the investigation, saying it could be a chance for hope and renewal. In a March letter to the Irish faithful, Benedict had promised an investigation that addressed chronic clerical child abuse in Ireland and decades of cover-ups by church authorities. Also Monday, the Vatican announced the pope had accepted the resignation of an Irish-born archbishop who had led ...
Vatican's Handling of Clergy Sex Abuse Gets Failing Grade in Survey
By David Gibson - Politics DailyAmerican Catholics by a nearly 2-1 margin think the Vatican has done a "poor job" handling the clergy sex abuse crisis, a dim view that follows months of embarrassing revelations and reports of persistent inaction by top church officials, including then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. Yet there is some good news for Rome as perceptions of Benedict have improved markedly of late, with 43 percent of Catholics now saying they view the pontiff favorably, up from just 27 percent in March. ...
Priest Sex Abuse Survey: Catholics See Links to Celibacy, Homosexuality
By David Gibson - Politics DailyGays in the priesthood and the ban on married priests are significant factors contributing to the sexual abuse of children by clergy, according to American Catholics surveyed in a new poll -- though researchers note there is little evidence to support such views. In the CBS News/New York Times poll released Tuesday, 31 percent of Catholics said they thought celibacy was a major factor leading to sexual abuse, while almost the same number (30 percent) said they believed homosexuality played a major role. Some 28 percent called celibacy a "minor factor" and 23 percent said homosexuality was a ...
Pope Sued in Wisconsin Clergy Sex Abuse Case
By Lisa Holewa - AOL NewsMILWAUKEE (April 22) -- A man who says he was molested by a priest while a student at a Catholic school for the deaf filed a federal lawsuit today against Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican and senior church officials, saying the Vatican knew the priest was a pedophile and could have stopped the sexual abuse. The plaintiff was identified only as John Doe 16, an Illinois man who said he was sexually abused by the Rev. Lawrence Murphy at St. John's School for the Deaf in a suburb of Milwaukee. The lawsuit asks that the Vatican be forced to release secret files with the names of clergy sex abusers ...
Pope Benedict and the Endless Sex Abuse Scandal
By David Gibson - Politics DailyVATICAN CITY -- A weary Pope Benedict XVI, who turns 83 on Friday, returned from a post-Easter break at the papal villa outside Rome on Wednesday but got no respite from the cascade of headlines about the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Fallout from statements on Monday by the pope's second-in-command, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, linking homosexuality and pedophilia, continued to provoke an uproar throughout Europe, making the front pages of many major newspapers. ...
Why the Catholic Church's Excuses Ring Hollow
By Mary C. Curtis - Politics DailyThis year, as always, Catholics flocked to Mass on Easter Sunday. It is the holiest of days, the time for Catholics and other Christians to reflect on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. But while solid in their faith in God, lifelong Catholics are shaky in their support of the men who have guided the church. I attended on Easter because I really wanted to hear what our pastor, a kind and gentle man like the majority of priests, would say. While I wanted some acknowledgment of the pain of abuse victims and the commitment of the church to remake its culture of secrecy, I wasn't surprised that ...
Vatican's Point Man on Abuse Was Successfully Sued by Whistleblowing Priest
By Jason Berry - Politics DailyWith Pope Benedict XVI in a stance of passive silence on the clergy sex abuse crisis, the Vatican strategy of attacking the news media has made the pope more vulnerable to criticism. Loyal Catholics, and even political leaders inclined to give the pontiff the benefit of the doubt, are wondering why he can't say what went wrong and how he will make structural changes. Instead, just before Easter, the Vatican launched a counteroffensive against the media in general and The New York Times in particular. The opening salvo was Cardinal William Levada's critique on the Vatican Web site of the ...
Abuse Scandals Draw Uncomfortably Close to the Pope
By David Gibson - Politics DailyWith each passing news cycle, the scandal of the sexual and physical abuse of children by Catholic clergy seems to be moving closer to the Vatican. What was once dismissed by Vatican officials -- including then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now known as Pope Benedict XVI -- as a relatively minor problem in the United States that was being blown out of proportion by an anti-Catholic American media, the crisis has instead spread inexorably across Europe in recent weeks and now threatens to reach as far as the pope himself. A confession by the pope's older brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, that he ...
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