Bishop faces jail after admitting 'deeply shocking' sex offences against young boy - as Church admits members knew of another allegation but kept quiet
An Anglican bishop is facing jail after pleading guilty to 'deeply shocking' sex offences against a young boy who stayed silent for more than 30 years.
Anthony Pierce, 84, the retired Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, admitted five charges of indecent assault on the boy under the age of 16.
The allegations were reported to the Church in Wales in 2023 when the victim, now middle-aged but who has not been identified for legal reasons, told safeguarding officers what happened to him.
Pierce was released on bail at Swansea Crown Court on Friday and will return to be sentenced next month.
The Church in Wales has now admitted that some of its members were aware of another allegation against Rev Pierce but kept quiet.
That alleged offence happened in 1993 but wasn't reported to police until 2010 and Pierce was never charged.
It comes after the Archbishop of Canterbury dramatically resigned admitting he felt 'shame' over the way victims of the Church's most prolific child abuser were let down.
Similarly the Bishop of Liverpool was forced resign earlier last month after two women made allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...quiet.html
Italy Church abuse group highlights toll on families
An Italian support group for victims of clerical sex abuse launched a network Friday to help affected families, whom it said were often shunned by their communities in the mainly Catholic country.
Organisers said it was the first such association in Italy, where the culture of silence surrounding the sexual abuse of minors by priests is still strong, despite efforts by Pope Francis to tackle the problem.
One mother, Claudia, described how her devastation at discovering her two young sons had been abused by a priest was compounded when "the entire parish abandoned us".
"It was hell," as the community "turned its back on us" and "made fun of us", she told journalists at a news conference organised by the Rete L'Abuso association to launch the network.
Campaigners say Italy, where the Vatican still holds considerable influence, has been slow to confront the problem.
During the launch of the new "Survivors' Families" group, parents of children abused shared heartbreaking stories -- of regret that they were unaware of the crimes until much later, or anger that trust in their priests had been betrayed.
"Many of us have lost our faith because of the Church itself," said Cristina Balestrini, whose son tried to kill himself three times after being abused by a priest.
"For families, it's hard to explain that a crime of abuse creates a victim but also [affects] so many other people close to them," she said.
The creation of the new network was prompted by the recent suicide of a couple from Turin, who had campaigned for better protection for children.
They died two years after their daughter, who had been abused by a relative when she was five or six, killed herself aged 28.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20...n-families
An Anglican bishop is facing jail after pleading guilty to 'deeply shocking' sex offences against a young boy who stayed silent for more than 30 years.
Anthony Pierce, 84, the retired Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, admitted five charges of indecent assault on the boy under the age of 16.
The allegations were reported to the Church in Wales in 2023 when the victim, now middle-aged but who has not been identified for legal reasons, told safeguarding officers what happened to him.
Pierce was released on bail at Swansea Crown Court on Friday and will return to be sentenced next month.
The Church in Wales has now admitted that some of its members were aware of another allegation against Rev Pierce but kept quiet.
That alleged offence happened in 1993 but wasn't reported to police until 2010 and Pierce was never charged.
It comes after the Archbishop of Canterbury dramatically resigned admitting he felt 'shame' over the way victims of the Church's most prolific child abuser were let down.
Similarly the Bishop of Liverpool was forced resign earlier last month after two women made allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...quiet.html
Italy Church abuse group highlights toll on families
An Italian support group for victims of clerical sex abuse launched a network Friday to help affected families, whom it said were often shunned by their communities in the mainly Catholic country.
Organisers said it was the first such association in Italy, where the culture of silence surrounding the sexual abuse of minors by priests is still strong, despite efforts by Pope Francis to tackle the problem.
One mother, Claudia, described how her devastation at discovering her two young sons had been abused by a priest was compounded when "the entire parish abandoned us".
"It was hell," as the community "turned its back on us" and "made fun of us", she told journalists at a news conference organised by the Rete L'Abuso association to launch the network.
Campaigners say Italy, where the Vatican still holds considerable influence, has been slow to confront the problem.
During the launch of the new "Survivors' Families" group, parents of children abused shared heartbreaking stories -- of regret that they were unaware of the crimes until much later, or anger that trust in their priests had been betrayed.
"Many of us have lost our faith because of the Church itself," said Cristina Balestrini, whose son tried to kill himself three times after being abused by a priest.
"For families, it's hard to explain that a crime of abuse creates a victim but also [affects] so many other people close to them," she said.
The creation of the new network was prompted by the recent suicide of a couple from Turin, who had campaigned for better protection for children.
They died two years after their daughter, who had been abused by a relative when she was five or six, killed herself aged 28.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20...n-families
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"
