Tag: Sexual Abuse

A commission set up to investigate sexual abuse in the Belgian Catholic Church found pervasive abuse involving over 500 victims.

In a sign of sharply rising tensions between the Vatican and Belgium, Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday criticized as “surprising and deplorable” a raid on church property last week by Belgian police investigating sex abuse by clerics.

The church expressed “shock” after clerics were detained as part of an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse.

A watchdog group has identified about a dozen clergy who have been accused, arrested or sued for abuse and returned to ministry. The process for investigating priests is secret, and often the diocese says nothing about the charges against a priest when it returns him to ministry.

One in every 33 women who attend worship services regularly has been the target of sexual advances by a religious leader, a survey released Wednesday says.

The author decries mis-characterization of crimes such as murder and child sexual abuse as unrelated to religion when committed by churches.

A former Los Angeles priest convicted of molesting two boys has been called before a federal grand jury investigating how the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Cardinal Roger M. Mahony handled priest abuse cases, a source told The Times. Former priest Michael Stephen Baker said he informed Mahony two decades ago that he sexually abused children, but he was allowed to remain in the ministry and victimized others.

A former altar boy sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Thursday, alleging that he was sexually abused by a priest in 1987 shortly before the priest fled to his native Mexico to avoid criminal prosecution over other molestation allegations. The plaintiff, 32, said that when he was 9 or 10, the priest molested him repeatedly at a Catholic church near downtown Los Angeles. An archdiocesan official says the priest was removed from service in 1988.

Don’t look away: it’s unbelievable that we still haven’t learnt the lessons from systematic child abuse in Ireland

The shocking scale of sexual and physical abuse in educational institutions in Ireland run by the Catholic church was revealed today in a report describing how thousands of boys and girls were raped, abused and exploited by the religious brothers and nuns who were supposed to look after them.

An Indian nun has stunned the Catholic Church with a confessional autobiography claiming widespread sexual abuse and bullying within its cloisters.

The Catholic order of priests is not specific about the behavior of Marcial Maciel, who was disciplined by the Vatican before he died. br/br/ A staunchly conservative religious order said Wednesday that its founder had committed misconduct.