Vatican officials moved to stem the rising tide of anger as details emerged of separate pedophilia scandals involving Catholic priests in several European countries.
Spokesman Federico Lombardi defended the response of churches to pedophile priest scandals emerging in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and elsewhere, saying Roman Catholic leaders had reacted swiftly and decisively.
He also sought to put the issue into perspective, saying the sexual abuse of children went far beyond church walls.
Church leaders in the countries affected “have faced the emergence of problems with timely and decisive action,” Lombardi said in a statement read out on Vatican Radio.
“They have demonstrated their desire for transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved dated from many years ago,” he said.
Lombardi acknowledged that the Church’s moral responsibility made errors by clergy particularly reprehensible.
But he added: “All objective and well-informed people know that the question is much broader, and concentrating accusations against the Church alone gives a false perspective.”
For example, he said, data showed that during the period of the scandal in Austria, there had been 17 cases in Church institutions, compared with 510 in other settings.
Lombardi’s remarks came as the head of an Austrian monastery lost his job on Tuesday over allegations that he abused a boy while he was a trainee priest.
Elsewhere in Austria, a Catholic boarding school spoke out about another case in the 1980s, while revelations emerged in the press of a priest who had abused up to 20 children in his care.
And in the Netherlands, religious leaders on Tuesday ordered a “broad, external and independent” investigation into allegations of abuse at a monastery school in the east of the country in the 1960s.
“To the victims of abuse in Catholic boarding schools, the religious leaders and bishops offer their deep-felt condolences and apologies,” a statement said.
In Germany, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger on Monday accused the Vatican of hindering investigations into abuse in Catholic institutions.
A bishop in Germany on Friday acknowledged sexual abuse of members of a boys’ choir in the southern city of Regensburg that was directed for 30 years by Pope Benedict XVI’s elder brother Georg Ratzinger.
The pope was meanwhile preparing a letter to Irish Catholics shocked by revelations that the Church authorities covered up abuse of children by priests in the mainly Catholic country for three decades.
In Mexico last week, the ultra-conservative Legionaries of Christ, asked for forgiveness for the activities of its late founder, Marcial Maciel after two brothers claiming to be his sons said Maciel had abused them.
In 2006, the Vatican ordered him to retire from public life after earlier accusations of child sex abuse.
The first major predator priest scandal erupted in the US in 2002. The Church in the US estimated that there had been 14,000 victims of some 4,000 to 5,000 clerics since the 1960s.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
FIRST STAGE: Hamas has agreed to release 48 Israeli hostages in exchange for 250 ‘national security prisoners’ as well as 1,700 Gazans, but has resisted calls to disarm Israel plans to destroy what remains of Hamas’ network of tunnels under Gaza, working with US approval after its hostages are freed, it said yesterday. Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said that the operation would be conducted under an “international mechanism” led by the US. “Israel’s great challenge after the hostage release phase will be the destruction of all Hamas terrorist tunnels in Gaza,” Katz said. “I have ordered the army to prepare to carry out this mission,” he added. Hamas operates a network of tunnels under Gaza, allowing its fighters to operate out of sight of Israeli reconnaissance. Some have passed under
RSS