Church Releases List Of Priests Accused Of Sexually Abusing Minors In Colombia
The Catholic Church in Colombia has released the names of 26 priests who were investigated for alleged sexual abuse of minors there, local media reported Saturday.
The Archidiocese of Medellin revealed the list of those accused between 1995 and 2019 in response to a court ruling in favor of Juan Pablo Barrientos, a journalist investigating an alleged network of pedophile clergy.
"Most of these priests ... were suspended for a little while, and went back to being priests again," said Barrientos, who has been investigating sexual assaults by priests for years, in a video released Saturday.
In a video posted on the Archdiocese's Twitter account, the religious figure accused Barrientos of "an aggressive smear campaign against the Church."
According to the journalist, the Church divulged the names "because the Constitutional Court has forced it to do so."
In 2019, Barrientos published the book "Let the children come to me," an investigation into pederasty and cover-up within the clergy in the South American country, where most people are Roman Catholic.
The Church tried to stop publication of the book with legal actions that failed.
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/catholic...ia-3293108
Utah lawmaker wants church leaders to pass a background check before working with children
A Utah lawmaker wants government-mandated background checks for church leaders and volunteers who work with young people — an effort, he said, that could prevent predators from grooming children for sexual abuse.
Sen. Keith Grover, R-Provo, doesn’t seem confident that his proposed legislation will become law, but he said in an interview last week that he hopes it will start an important conversation about sexual abuse and how to protect children.
He spent his career as an educator and now works as a real estate agent, and he has been required to pass background checks for both professions.
Why, he asks, don’t clergy face the same requirement? Or the church volunteers who take young people on camping trips, play night games with them or offer them support?
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/08/30/u...ts-church/
Priests transferred by German diocese continued to abuse
TRIER, Germany — The Diocese of Trier transferred alleged or convicted perpetrators of abuse to new locations in and outside the diocese, where they reoffended against young people and children, said an independent commission’s interim report on abuse in the diocese from 1946 to 2021.
The German Catholic news agency KNA said the report’s statistics showed 513 victims of abuse in the diocese’s area of responsibility “could be identified by name or anonymously” for the period from 1946 to 2021.
“In a large number of cases at least … no measures were taken on the part of the diocese to protect potential victims from sexual abuse,” the commission said.
The report listed 195 people as accused or convicted perpetrators of sexual abuse. The commission said the numbers were likely to increase as it delved deeper into the files.
KNA said the independent commission was launched in June 2021.
Bishop Bernhard Stein, who headed the diocese from 1967 until his retirement in 1980 is accused of having known about the sexual abuse of children by clerics and of having shielded the perpetrators.
The interim report also contains two serious historical cases that the commission said documented the “practice of diocesan administrations dealing with cases of sexual abuse internally and concealing them from the public, even from the access of state law enforcement agencies.”
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/202...d-to-abuse
The Catholic Church in Colombia has released the names of 26 priests who were investigated for alleged sexual abuse of minors there, local media reported Saturday.
The Archidiocese of Medellin revealed the list of those accused between 1995 and 2019 in response to a court ruling in favor of Juan Pablo Barrientos, a journalist investigating an alleged network of pedophile clergy.
"Most of these priests ... were suspended for a little while, and went back to being priests again," said Barrientos, who has been investigating sexual assaults by priests for years, in a video released Saturday.
In a video posted on the Archdiocese's Twitter account, the religious figure accused Barrientos of "an aggressive smear campaign against the Church."
According to the journalist, the Church divulged the names "because the Constitutional Court has forced it to do so."
In 2019, Barrientos published the book "Let the children come to me," an investigation into pederasty and cover-up within the clergy in the South American country, where most people are Roman Catholic.
The Church tried to stop publication of the book with legal actions that failed.
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/catholic...ia-3293108
Utah lawmaker wants church leaders to pass a background check before working with children
A Utah lawmaker wants government-mandated background checks for church leaders and volunteers who work with young people — an effort, he said, that could prevent predators from grooming children for sexual abuse.
Sen. Keith Grover, R-Provo, doesn’t seem confident that his proposed legislation will become law, but he said in an interview last week that he hopes it will start an important conversation about sexual abuse and how to protect children.
He spent his career as an educator and now works as a real estate agent, and he has been required to pass background checks for both professions.
Why, he asks, don’t clergy face the same requirement? Or the church volunteers who take young people on camping trips, play night games with them or offer them support?
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/08/30/u...ts-church/
Priests transferred by German diocese continued to abuse
TRIER, Germany — The Diocese of Trier transferred alleged or convicted perpetrators of abuse to new locations in and outside the diocese, where they reoffended against young people and children, said an independent commission’s interim report on abuse in the diocese from 1946 to 2021.
The German Catholic news agency KNA said the report’s statistics showed 513 victims of abuse in the diocese’s area of responsibility “could be identified by name or anonymously” for the period from 1946 to 2021.
“In a large number of cases at least … no measures were taken on the part of the diocese to protect potential victims from sexual abuse,” the commission said.
The report listed 195 people as accused or convicted perpetrators of sexual abuse. The commission said the numbers were likely to increase as it delved deeper into the files.
KNA said the independent commission was launched in June 2021.
Bishop Bernhard Stein, who headed the diocese from 1967 until his retirement in 1980 is accused of having known about the sexual abuse of children by clerics and of having shielded the perpetrators.
The interim report also contains two serious historical cases that the commission said documented the “practice of diocesan administrations dealing with cases of sexual abuse internally and concealing them from the public, even from the access of state law enforcement agencies.”
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/202...d-to-abuse
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"
