Clerical Abuse

Peru bishop wants excommunication for abuse scandals, not just defrocking
- Church in the Americas
- Mar 25, 2019
Bishop Kay Schmalhausen of Ayaviri, Peru believes current punishments for both the crime of clerical sexual abuse (usually expulsion from the clerical state) and the cover-up are ineffective, and suggested harsher penalties including excommunication.
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Movement leader says Christ is key to recovery from abuse scandals
- Interviews
- Mar 18, 2019
For one prominent member of the Italy-based Communion and Liberation movement, the recent clerical abuse scandals are an invitation not only to re-think policies of accountability, but they are an opportunity for a renewal of faith.
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Summit drives home that clerical sexual abuse is a global problem
- February abuse summit
- Feb 25, 2019
Though Pope Francis’s high stakes anti-abuse summit has not yet yielded any major policy moves, one message was clear throughout the four-day gathering: the problem of child sexual abuse is a global one, and no one can leave thinking it’s not a concern in their own backyard.
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Key papal ally calls for reconsidering scope of pontifical secrecy
- February abuse summit
- Feb 23, 2019
Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Germany, a key papal ally, called for reconsidering the scope of papal secrecy during Francis’s anti-abuse summit on Saturday.
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Survivors blast pope’s ‘reflection points’ on abuse as less than zero tolerance
- February abuse summit
- Feb 21, 2019
As part of Pope Francis’s high-stakes summit on clerical sexual abuse happening at the Vatican, in Thursday’s opening session he released a list of 21 reflection points that did not necessarily sit well with survivors who say they fall short of the Catholic Church’s pledge of zero tolerance.
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Pope asks for prayers for summit, calls clergy abuse an ‘urgent’ problem
- February abuse summit, Vatican
- Feb 17, 2019
Speaking in his Sunday Angelus address, Pope Francis petitioned Catholics to pray for an upcoming anti-abuse summit at the Vatican, saying he wanted to call the gathering as a response to the “urgent” challenge of clerical sexual abuse.
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Peru bishop wants excommunication for abuse scandals, not just defrocking