A priest who celebrated mass in the sea using an inflatable mattress as an altar has been placed under investigation by Italian authorities. Father Mattia Bernasconi, 36, from the archdiocese of Milan, said he had planned to hold Sunday’s ceremony among the trees by the beach in Crotone, southern Italy, after he had been helping … Read more
The retired bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Albany, New York, has acknowledged covering up allegations of sexual abuse against children by priests in part to avoid scandal and protect the reputation of the diocese. Howard Hubbard made the admission during a deposition taken last year as part of a response to dozens of … Read more
I can’t risk not being believed and people thinking I’m exploiting what happened to me,” says Ed Gavagan, a survivor of child sexual abuse and one of the participants in this remarkable documentary. He is one of six adult men who work with director Robert Greene, their lawyer Rebecca Randles, child actor Terrick Trobough … Read more
The Vatican has done little to seriously address the problem of clerical sexual abuse one year on from an unprecedented summit at which bishops and cardinals heard the testimony of victims, activists have said. Pope Francis closed the four-day summit last February promising that the Catholic church would “spare no effort” to bring to justice … Read more
Pope Francis has delivered midnight Mass by saying the celebration of Jesus’s birth reminded humanity how “God continues to love us all, even the worst of us”. The pontiff told crowds gathered at the Vatican on Christmas Eve: “You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things, but the Lord … Read more
Three more former altar boys have claimed they were sexually abused by two priests in the Vatican, as the child abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic church zeroed in for a second time on its headquarters. The allegations of abuse in the Vatican’s youth seminary, to be set out in an Italian TV show … Read more
The Catholic diocese of Oakland has released the names of 45 priests, deacons and religious brothers who officials say are “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors. The San Francisco Chronicle says the list goes back to 1962, when the diocese was founded. None of the men are currently in the ministry. Of the 45 people named, 20 were priests. … Read more
Some of the most senior clerics in the Roman Catholic church who have vociferously attacked homosexuality are themselves gay, according to a book to be published next week. Eighty per cent of priests working at the Vatican are gay, although not necessarily sexually active, it is claimed in the book, In the Closet of the Vatican. … Read more
20 of 39 Dutch cardinals, bishops and auxiliaries ‘covered up sexual abuse, allowing perpetrators to cause many more victims’, report says More than half of the Netherlands’ senior clerics were involved in covering up sexual assault of children between 1945 and 2010, a press report claimed on Saturday, further engulfing the Catholic church in a … Read more