A Chilean prosecutor last weekend announced plans to bring an “historical trial” against the Catholic Church for attempting to hide or eliminate evidence related to clerical sexual abuse, confirming what Pope Francis said in May in a letter to the country’s bishops’ conference: “We know that there were religious who destroyed evidence.”
Catholic groups have collected and are distributing aid for thousands of people affected by a deadly earthquake that struck Lombok, Indonesia’s popular tourist island.
After a month of mounting allegations of sexual abuse against American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Pope Francis has accepted his resignation from the College of Cardinals. Cardinal McCarrick continues to be a priest, and has been ordered to remain in a house “to be indicated” until the accusations against him are examined.
While the situation in Bangladesh, where the country has taken in more than 800,000 majority Muslim Rohingya refugees fleeing ethnic cleansing in neighboring Myanmar, and those seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, are undoubtedly different situations, Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario, C.S.C., believes there’s a shared lesson to be learned.
After an investigation into alleged irregularities in the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of 57-year-old Auxiliary Bishop Juan Jose Pineda Fasquelle.
Despite repeated attempts to distance himself from his country’s sexual abuse crisis, including recently asserting there’s a climate of “slander” against the Catholic Church, Chilean Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati of Santiago is facing mounting scrutiny for his role in the scandals both from outside the Church and within.
As attacks on Catholic clergy continue and anti-government protesters are besieged by Nicaraguan police and paramilitaries, the bishops said they would pray an exorcism prayer.
Interfaith leaders, including Catholics, have declared their belief that marriage can only be between a biological man and a biological woman.
To be a woman in a country where most of her people see women as a disgrace, and at best look at her from a sexual point of view, it is a heavy burden, but even worse when you are a Christian woman. It is hell!
by Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As the Catholic Church in Chile continues to reel from allegations of clerical sexual abuse and cover-ups, police arrested the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Santiago on accusations that he had sexually abused minors.
