Albury churchmen don't approve of a Catholic bishop's proposal to stop protests outside places of worship in response to bill targeting abortion hubs

ALBURY’S two highest profile clergymen have rejected a Catholic bishop’s suggestion that safe zones be created around churches like those being considered for NSW abortion clinics. Bishop Peter Comensoli flagged the idea with politicians in the wake of the state’s Upper House MPs last week passing a bill to stop protests within 150 metres of reproductive rooms.

https://www.bordermail.com.au/story/5433545/we-dont-need-exclusion-zones/ 

Despite warnings, past Buffalo bishops returned abusive clergy to parishes

Despite warnings, past Buffalo bishops returnedWhen a mother complained that the Rev. Norbert F. Orsolits propositioned her teenage son in a bar, the Diocese of Buffalo quietly sent him away for mental health therapy and listed him as "on leave" in its official 1979 directory. Then, within months, the diocese reassigned him to a new parish, where he later was accused of molesting at least two boys. Orsolits isn't the only Buffalo priest accused of sexual abusing children who had been marked as "on leave" and then put back into a parish.

https://buffalonews.com/2018/05/27/despite-warnings-past-buffalo-bishops-returned-abusive-clergy-to-parishes/ 

Christians all in a huff about Thomas the Tank Engine, while real threat to children is ignored

There was a revealing meltdown on the fringes of Victorian politics during the week that you might have missed. A preposterous news story declared that based upon a university study into gender identification, local councils were about to ban Thomas the Tank Engine and Winnie the Pooh as well as the words “boy” and “girl”. Of course none of this was right; not the interpretation of the study in question, not the response of local governments, not the impending abolition of Winnie and Thomas. No nouns were to be decommissioned.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/christians-all-in-a-huff-about-thomas-the-tank-engine-while-real-threat-to-children-is-ignored-20180525-p4zhlr.html?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed 

Cover Ups and Confessions: Pope Francis and Child Abuse

It is the season for exposures and exposes, and the Catholic Church has been making regular ripples of the wrong and undeniably crude sort. Globally, the church is finding itself being picked bare in terms of institutional malfeasance, not merely on the issue of having harboured abusive priests, but of placing a dark, impenetrable cover over them.

https://www.modernghana.com/news/856953/cover-ups-and-confessions-pope-francis-and-child-abuse.html 

UPDATE: Diocese of Steubenville reacts to sexual abuse allegations

The investigation continues into "credible allegations" of possible sexual abuse against a retired priest. Over the weekend, the Diocese of Steubenville removed Monsignor Mark Froelich from active ministry after sexual abuse allegations were made involving a minor during the late 80s, early 90s. Froelich retired in 2014, but still actively participates in church activities. Steubenville Diocese Director of Communications Dino Orsatti said Bishop Monforton decided to remove Froelich because of the seriousness of the case

http://www.wtrf.com/news/allegations-of-sexual-abuse-against-local-priest/1202510585 

Bishop steps down from anti-sex abuse board in Chile

Chile’s Catholic church took another blow on Saturday as the bishop leading the charge against sex abuse stepped down following more allegations of misconduct by priests. Rancagua Bishop Alejandro Goic presented his resignation as head of the Bishops’ Conference sex abuse prevention board, the latest episode in a Chilean abuse scandal which has rocked Pope Francis’s papacy. The church accepted Goic’s immediate resignation from the board set up in 2011 to investigate sexual abuse by clergy, following the case of Chilean priest Fernando Karadima.

https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2018/05/bishop-steps-anti-sex-abuse-board-chile/ 

On Chile, Pope Francis is way past the tip of the iceberg now

Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series. Tomorrow’s conclusion will explore what Pope Francis means when he calls Chile to become once again a “prophetic church.” ROME - It’s a universally acknowledged reality of the sea that it’s never the tip of the iceberg that sinks a ship, but what lies under the water unseen. Yet, to the trained eye, the visible white mass usually is enough to warn of the dangers ahead and to change course.

https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2018/06/04/on-chile-pope-francis-is-way-past-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-now/ 

Sexually abusing children in the name of God

Rachel Denhollander became an unwilling victim of sexual abuse at age 7 at the hands of a college student attached to the ministry of Westwood Baptist Church in Kalamazoo, Mich. Often, the young man encouraged the girl to sit on his lap. He bought her gifts, including clothing. His actions caught the attention of Sandy Burdick, the licensed counselor who led the church’s sexual-abuse support group and he warned Denhollander’s parents, who turned to their closet friends, their Bible-study support group, for help.

https://www.blueridgemuse.com/node/47032 

Vatican replaces archbishop convicted of concealing child sex abuse

The Vatican on Sunday announced a temporary replacement for an Australian archbishop who was convicted of concealing child sex abuse by a fellow priest in the 1970s. Pope Francis said in a statement that Greg O'Kelly, the current Bishop of Port Pirie, in the state of South Australia, would temporarily replace Philip Wilson, the Archbishop of Adelaide, who stepped aside after being convicted of covering up abuses last month.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/03/australia/australian-archbishop-philip-wilson-replacement-intl/index.html 

Sexual abuse victims call for bishops' resignations, criminal investigation of Buffalo diocese

Summoning outrage at the results of a recent 7 Eyewitness News investigation into the covering up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, abuse victims Friday called for the resignation of two bishops and urged law enforcement to begin a criminal investigation of the church hierarchy in Buffalo.

https://www.wkbw.com/news/i-team/sexual-abuse-victims-call-for-bishops-resignations-criminal-investigation-of-buffalo-diocese 

Vatican orders ex-diplomat to face child sex abuse trial

VATICAN CITY: A monsignor who was a former adviser at the Vatican’s US embassy in Washington will face charges of possessing and exchanging child pornography, the Holy See announced on Saturday. In a statement it said that Carlo Alberto Capella was ordered to face trail on Thursday, with the first hearing set for June 22.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/327816-vatican-orders-ex-diplomat-to-face-child-sex-abuse-trial 

Pennsylvania: 884-page Catholic church sexual abuse report to be released

Mark Rozzi can remember the feeling of the tall grass brushing against his bare legs on the day he and a close friend desperately ran out of the rectory in Hyde Park, Pennsylvania. Rozzi, who was 13 at the time, had just been raped by his priest, the Rev Edward Graff, and remembers thinking in that moment, as he ran through a field, that he would take his terrible new secret to his grave.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/11/pennsylvania-catholic-church-abuse-allegations-report 

Victims launch organisation to fight abuse in Catholic Church

Survivors and activists involved in the fight against sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have joined forces to launch an international organisation in Geneva to force the Church to end abuse and the impunity of bishops. "The Church has escaped with its crimes for too long," Peter Saunders, a British survivor of abuse and founder of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood, told reporters in Geneva on Thursday, announcing the creation of the Ending Clerical Abuse (ECA) organisation external link .

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/accountability_victims-launch-organisation-to-fight-abuse-in-catholic-church/44175342