German bishop resigns, cites responsibility in abuse scandal
Pope Francis on Saturday accepted a resignation request from a German bishop who asked to step down because of his mistakes in handling sexual abuse cases.
Franz-Josef Bode, who has been the bishop of Osnabrueck, Germany, since 1995, said in a personal statement that his decision to resign “has matured in me in recent months” and he hoped it would have a liberating effect on the diocese.
Bode explained that an interim report released in September on abuse by clergy in the diocese had revealed his mistakes. He acknowledged his responsibility as a bishop and said, “Today, I can only ask all those affected again for forgiveness.”
The pope has not yet responded to a resignation request from a German cardinal who also was accused of mishandling sexual abuse cases. The request from Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki stemmed from a crisis of confidence in the Cologne archdiocese that started in 2020.
The crisis began when, citing legal concerns, Woelki kept under wraps a report he commissioned on how local church officials reacted when priests were accused of sexual abuse. The withholding of the report infuriated many Cologne Catholics. A second report, published in March 2021, found 75 cases in which high-ranking officials had neglected their duties.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wir...l-98119949
Unprecedented investigation into rabbi sex abuse in France
Two independent journalists in France are using podcasts to report the findings of an unprecedented six-months-long investigation into sexual violence committed by rabbis of the country's Orthodox Jewish community,
Salomé Parent-Rachdi and Lila Berdugo, who released the first podcast this past Wednesday, said they wanted to go beyond individual cases and look at the mechanisms within the community – such as the institutional silence or omertà – that has allowed the abuse to take place.
Beyond the cases of the rabbis involved, the two journalists wanted to investigate the "systemic" aspects of sexual violence in the Jewish community. How is it that after a first sexual case known to the regional consistory of Aix-en-Provence, the rabbi implicated by the podcast was moved to Grenoble, with the only injunction being to undergo a few psychotherapy sessions? Why are women who are victims of domination and sexual violence by a rabbi always afraid to speak out and denounce what has happened?
"One of the first things that prevent victims from speaking out is the fear of playing into the hands of antisemitism and harming the community," Lila Berdugo, the journalist, explains.
She also revealed that a rabbi accused of "pedophilia" is currently director of a rabbinical court. And she reported that a rabbi in Greater Paris who allegedly took advantage of his position within his community to abuse a dozen young women continues to enjoy a very honorable place within the Consistory
https://international.la-croix.com/news/...ance/17507
Pope Francis on Saturday accepted a resignation request from a German bishop who asked to step down because of his mistakes in handling sexual abuse cases.
Franz-Josef Bode, who has been the bishop of Osnabrueck, Germany, since 1995, said in a personal statement that his decision to resign “has matured in me in recent months” and he hoped it would have a liberating effect on the diocese.
Bode explained that an interim report released in September on abuse by clergy in the diocese had revealed his mistakes. He acknowledged his responsibility as a bishop and said, “Today, I can only ask all those affected again for forgiveness.”
The pope has not yet responded to a resignation request from a German cardinal who also was accused of mishandling sexual abuse cases. The request from Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki stemmed from a crisis of confidence in the Cologne archdiocese that started in 2020.
The crisis began when, citing legal concerns, Woelki kept under wraps a report he commissioned on how local church officials reacted when priests were accused of sexual abuse. The withholding of the report infuriated many Cologne Catholics. A second report, published in March 2021, found 75 cases in which high-ranking officials had neglected their duties.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wir...l-98119949
Unprecedented investigation into rabbi sex abuse in France
Two independent journalists in France are using podcasts to report the findings of an unprecedented six-months-long investigation into sexual violence committed by rabbis of the country's Orthodox Jewish community,
Salomé Parent-Rachdi and Lila Berdugo, who released the first podcast this past Wednesday, said they wanted to go beyond individual cases and look at the mechanisms within the community – such as the institutional silence or omertà – that has allowed the abuse to take place.
Beyond the cases of the rabbis involved, the two journalists wanted to investigate the "systemic" aspects of sexual violence in the Jewish community. How is it that after a first sexual case known to the regional consistory of Aix-en-Provence, the rabbi implicated by the podcast was moved to Grenoble, with the only injunction being to undergo a few psychotherapy sessions? Why are women who are victims of domination and sexual violence by a rabbi always afraid to speak out and denounce what has happened?
"One of the first things that prevent victims from speaking out is the fear of playing into the hands of antisemitism and harming the community," Lila Berdugo, the journalist, explains.
She also revealed that a rabbi accused of "pedophilia" is currently director of a rabbinical court. And she reported that a rabbi in Greater Paris who allegedly took advantage of his position within his community to abuse a dozen young women continues to enjoy a very honorable place within the Consistory
https://international.la-croix.com/news/...ance/17507
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
