A German catholic bishop investigated for severe physical abuse of children and for financial misconduct has issued a public apology and has offered to resign. Bishop Walter Mixa is being investigated for physical abuse of children during the 70s, when he was a pastor at a children’s orphanage. Mixa is also accused of financial irregularities at the orphanage.
Additional details: Deutsche Welle
An 83-year-old priest has been arrested in Brazil, accused of pedophilia. The man was allegedly caught on video while having sexual relations with a former altar boy aged 19. Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa has been detained for reportedly molesting children as young as 12.
This is the latest in a series of cases of alleged misconduct by priests in Latin America, one of the most heavily Roman Catholic regions in the world.
Additional details: CTV
Catholic Church leaders in Switzerland say they underestimated the problem
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s Bishops Conference, the highest body in the Catholic church in this country, has publicly apologized for problems of sexual abuse by its clergy, saying it grossly “underestimated the extent of the problem.”
The Conference notes in a statement (pdf) issued Wednesday 31 March, the most public acknowledgment made to date of the problem, that “Diocesan leaders and those in religious orders made mistakes, and we apologize for those mistakes.”
Four successive archbishops of Dublin, over a period of 30 years, “routinely” covered up child sexual abuse by priests in their diocese, an Irish government report published Thursday 26 November shows. Dermot Ahern, the Irish justice minister responsible for the “Report of the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin”, said it documented “a scandal on an astonishing scale.” The Irish state is also blamed for not ensuring that all were treated equally under the law and “allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes.” Police are accused of actively colluding with Church officials and priests on a regular basis to cover up crimes from 1974-2004, the period covered by the study. This is the third major Irish investigative report in 10 years into abuse by Church clergy.
Links to other sites: Boston Globe, Guardian, UK, Irish Times and Irish Department of Justice statement
