3 h. ago France’s premier faces questions from an inquiry on a Catholic school abuse scandal

French Prime Minister François Bayrou is facing questions from a parliamentary inquiry into alleged abuse at a Catholic school amid accusations he has hidden what he knows about the scandal

Politics

2 w. ago Fury as domestic abusers can claim compensation for UK’s biggest health scandal

The government said it had looked into exclude anyone with relevant convictions, but could find no practical way of doing so.

Events

2 w. ago Pope Francis' coffin to be closed by disgraced cardinal who covered up child sex abuse scandal

Roger Michael Mahony was stripped of all his administrative and public duties in Los Angeles by his successor in 2013.

Events

3 w. ago French PM’s daughter says she was brutally beaten at scandal

François Bayrou faces questions over what he knew about school at centre of allegations of decades of abuseThe daughter of the French prime minister, François Bayrou, has said she was brutally beaten at a private Catholic school at the centre of a growing sexual abuse scandal that has shocked France.Hélène Perlant, 53, told Paris Match that a senior priest at Notre-Dame de Bétharram beat her in front of her peers during a summer camp in the 1980s, when she was 14, but said she had never told Bayrou. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Child sexual abuse scandal cast long shadow over Pope Francis’s papacy

Issue threatened to derail Francis’s papacy and dominated his trips abroadPope Francis: cardinals to meet in Rome to set date for funeral – liveIn 2002, the Boston Globe published a series of articles exposing the scale of child sexual abuse in the local Catholic church. It shone a spotlight – the title of a later movie based on the investigation – on the church’s dark shameful secrets.Eleven years later, Francis became pope. Wave after wave of abuse revelations continued to crash at the Vatican’s doors amid mounting anger and revulsion among the faithful and beyond. The issue threatened to derail Francis’s papacy and dominate his trips abroad. He was slow to grasp the scale and systemic nature of the issue and apparently reluctant to take firm action to deal with abusers and those who covered up abuse. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Child sexual abuse scandal cast long shadow over Francis’s papacy

Issue dogged Francis throughout his time as head of Catholic church, with abuse survivors saying he failed to do enoughPope Francis: cardinals to meet in Rome to set date for funeral – liveIn 2002, the Boston Globe published a series of articles exposing the scale of child sexual abuse in the local Catholic church. It shone a spotlight – the title of a later movie based on the investigation – on the church’s dark shameful secrets.Eleven years later, Francis became pope. Wave after wave of abuse revelations continued to crash at the Vatican’s doors amid mounting anger and revulsion among the faithful and beyond. The issue threatened to derail Francis’s papacy and dominate his trips abroad. He was slow to grasp the scale and systemic nature of the issue and apparently reluctant to take firm action to deal with abusers and those who covered up abuse. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Pope Francis’ approach did not win him friends within the church bureaucracy. But he lit the path for us all | Francis Sullivan

While his legacy in confronting the sex abuse scandal is still incomplete, Francis demonstrated that change is possible and mercy can be realPope Francis, groundbreaking Jesuit pontiff, diesPotential candidates to succeed Pope FrancisEarly in his papacy Pope Francis said the name for God is mercy. He understood the church had become too doctrinaire, divisive and judgmental for too many people. The drift of Catholics from conventional practice in the west said as much. He knew the church had alienated the LGBTQ community, discriminated against women and resisted full participation for divorced and remarried Catholics. He acknowledged that previous popes had not confronted the clerical sex abuse scandal. He wanted to do better and the Catholic world was with him, the institution was not.The Catholic church by its nature is a conservative institution. It uses inertia as a management tool. Change is a slow and drawn-out affair. Francis regularly railed against clericalism because of its...

Politics