The anti-abuse message that only children can read

A poster than can only be fully seen when looked at from a child’s point of view has been used in an anti-child abuse campaign. Spanish organisation the Anar Foundation used lenticular printing – a technique which means those looking at different angles see a different image. On the poster, a “secret” message showing a [...]

Indonesia: Child protection body declares emergency campaign

The National Commission for Child Protection has announced an emergency campaign for 2013 to address an escalating number of child sexual abuse cases. New commission figures showed the number of reported cases climbed for the third straight year in 2012 with 2,637 instances of child abuse in Indonesia last year against 2,509 in 2011. Last year, 62 [...]

Tipping a tipping point in Catholicism

The Catholic train wreck is unfolding before us. An organisation that claims moral leadership ought to be a paragon. The evidence of abuse has been compounded by a sordid protection of the guilty and the resistance to scrutiny and change. Weird and neolithic attitudes about obedience, sex and forgiveness appear to have produced strange and [...]

Inquiry will test Catholic church’s good faith

Chris Masters, of The Moonlight State fame, wrote that when Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen was trying to scuttle the Fitzgerald inquiry he warned colleagues that if you lifted an old piece of tin you were likely to find a dead cat or an angry snake. Prime Minister Julia Gillard is doubtlessly aware plenty of stinking cats [...]

Australia’s Catholic Church acknowledges ‘shame’ of child abuse

The head of Australia’s powerful Catholic Church acknowledged the “shame” of child sex abuse among the clergy and welcomed a sweeping inquiry on Tuesday, but also warned that the extent of the problem within his church had been exaggerated. On Monday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard ordered a rare Royal Commission, the highest form of investigation [...]

Catholic Church defends its handling of child abuse allegations

The Catholic Church says a royal commission into child abuse is a chance to “clear out” doubts about the church, and has defended its internal processes of dealing with abuse allegations. “We do need this activity, the inquiry, at this stage, to make quite sure the right thing is being done, to clear out for [...]

Inquiry into Catholic Church abuse begins

A Victorian parliamentary committee has started holding the first public hearings in a landmark inquiry into child sex abuse within religious organisations. The inquiry was launched by the Victorian Government earlier this year after a concerted campaign by victims’ groups. The inquiry has been flooded with hundreds of submissions, with many calling for legislation that [...]

Australia: Catholic Church hid abuse – Vic Police

The Catholic Church and other religious groups hide accusations of abuse rather than expose suspected offenders, Victoria Police says. In its submission to the state government’s inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations, Victoria Police says victims of sexual crime are too often being talked out of reporting the matters [...]

Vatican: Chilean Catholic bishop accused of abuse resigns

Pope Benedict accepted the resignation on Tuesday of a bishop in Chile accused of sexually abusing a minor, the latest in a series of such scandals to rock the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican did not specify the reason for the resignation of Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez of the city of Iquique but it [...]

Charismatic group rallies behind sacked ‘ivory’ priest

Embattled Msgr. Cristobal Garcia can find strength in a Catholic charismatic group that has been under his spiritual guidance for the last 20 years. Members of the Bukas Loob sa Diyos (BLD) have been holding vigils and synchronized prayer brigades for Garcia since Wednesday after the monsignor has been linked to the illegal smuggling of [...]

Priest suspended on 20-year-old child abuse raps

Msgr. Cristobal Garcia has been suspended and stripped of his positions in the archdiocese of Cebu on orders of the Vatican while the Holy See investigates accusations he molested altar boys more than 20 years ago in the United States. Msgr. Achilles Dakay, the archdiocese’s media liaison officer, said Garcia’s suspension came months before the [...]

Vatican suspends Cebu priest

A high-ranking official of the Archdiocese of Cebu has been suspended from his duties while the Vatican City investigates a child abuse case filed against him in the United States more than two decades ago. Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said the US case against former Archdiocesan Commission on Worship chairman Msgr. Cristobal Garcia has been [...]

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