A Vatican prosecutor requested that Father Gabriele Martinelli, who is accused of sexually abusing a younger student at the St. Pius X Pre-Seminary, be sentenced to six years in prison if convicted.
Sexual Abuse
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Reporting on religion can be dark. But we need people on the God Beat more than ever.
The best essays in ‘The God Beat’ are quietly reflective, deeply informed, subjective but not solipsistic.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis appoints English Oblate, Father Andrew Small, secretary of child protection commission
Pope Francis has appointed Andrew Small, O.M.I., a 53-year-old English priest, as the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
A burial site for Indigenous children was found in Canada. Could it happen in the United States?
“The fundamental reality of children dying at these boarding schools is not a new story.”
Posted inFaith, Podcasts
Sex abuse, women’s ordination and financial scandal: Unpacking Pope Francis’ revision of canon law
On this episode of “Inside the Vatican,” host Colleen Dulle and veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell walk through the changes to canon law on sexual abuse, women’s ordination, and financial mismanagement.
Posted inFaith, News Analysis
Analysis: A canon lawyer reviews the first major changes to church law since 1983
The latest revisions to Catholic Church law all point to significant gaps in the church’s law, requiring swift action from a canonical perspective.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Explainer: Cardinal Marx wasn’t accused of sexual abuse or cover-up. So why has he offered to resign?
Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s offer to resign as archbishop of Munich and Freising hit the church in Germany and Rome like an earthquake. And while survivors welcomed the move, not everyone agrees with the cardinal’s analysis of the abuse crisis.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Cardinal Marx offers Pope Francis his resignation, citing ‘responsibility for the catastrophe of sexual abuse’
The cardinal’s decision comes at a time when there is a major crisis in the other large German diocese of Cologne linked to the abuse scandal and pastoral management of the archdiocese.
Posted inFaith, News
Pope Francis overhauls church’s criminal code to punish the sexual abuse of adults by priests
Amid the #MeToo movement and scandals of seminarians and nuns being sexually abused by their superiors, the Vatican has come to realize that adults can be victimized too if there is a power imbalance in the relationship.
Posted inFaith, News
Pope Francis orders apostolic visitation of German diocese to investigate abuse crisis
Two envoys will work to get a “comprehensive picture of the complex pastoral situation in the archdiocese.”