Vatican Abuse Summit will Underline Need to End Cover-Ups
The aim of Pope Francis’ February meeting on abuse and safeguarding is to clarify and underline what must and must not be done with allegations and make sure no more cases are ever covered...
Category: Abuse
Parish Reacts to ‘Diabolical Masterpiece’
A parish in Johannesburg archdiocese has presented its resolutions from a public forum on Church clerical abuse. Immaculate Conception church in Rosebank presented the resolutions from its Groundswell forum, held in October, to Archbishop...
Ireland to Reassess Claims of Magdalene Laundries Victims
Women who worked in Ireland’s “Magdalene laundries” but were denied compensation under the state’s Magdalene Restorative Justice programme have won their long-running battle to have their applications reassessed. New legislation will ensure that payments...
Vatican begins investigation of Archbishop McCarrick
James Grein, a Virginia man who said Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, sexually abused him for years beginning when he was 11, gave his testimony about what occurred before a judicial...
Women: How We Were Abused in the Church
Three female survivors of sexual abuse by priests called on Church leaders preparing for a February summit at the Vatican to listen to the voices of victims and to end a “culture of cover-up”...
Priests and Bishops Attend Family Violence Conference
Priests and bishops from various dioceses attended a conference on the family and violence in Benoni, Gauteng. The guest speakers, from Canada, were clinical psychologist Dr Christauria Welland and her husband Michael Welland. Bishops...
German Prosecutors Launch Crackdown on Church Sex Abuse
German police and prosecutors are launching investigations into clergy sexual abuse following the release of a report containing evidence of 3,700 alleged child sex abuse cases in the Catholic Church over a 68-year-period. Authorities...
Tlhagale: Halo of Priesthood is Now Broken
Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg has called for the excommunication of all priests who abuse minors, and spoke with concern about the anger of young South Africans at what he called “broken promises”.
Answers on Jesuit Abuse Case
Fr David Rowan SJ, Regional superior, Society of Jesus in South Africa – Although all the issues raised have been addressed in numerous media recently, the Southern Cross letter “Clear answers now on abuse”...
Clear Answers Needed Now on SA Church Abuse
Mervyn Pollitt, Waterfall, KZN – The case of a Jesuit priest’s sexual abuse of William Segodisho in the late 1980s which both the order and the priest himself have acknowledged to be true, raises...
Why I Won’t Vote With My Feet
Cecil Cullen, Johannesburg – Reflecting on the sex abuse scandals, we humans are called to worship our God, and being a Catholic I try to do so in accordance with the Church’s requirements. The...
If Pope is Innocent of Vigano’s Claim, Let Him Say So
The Southern Cross editorial of September 12 in favour of a Truth & Reconciliation Commission for repairing the abuse scandal and restoring justice to the Church in the wake of the terrible crisis engulfing the whole Body of Christ, deserves grateful praise.
