Latest news with #zeroTolerance
RNZ News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Call for Pope Leo to issue abuse zero tolerance policy
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States, appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on May 8. Photo: Stoyan Nenov/Reuters via CNN Newsource A Fijian abuse survivor is urging the new head of the Catholic church to adopt a zero tolerance policy for child sex abuse. Felix Fremlin was seven years old when he was molested by a New Zealand Marist Brother at his primary school in Suva. Although he had received a written apology and FJD$15,000 (approx US$6,680) in financial compensation from the Marist Brothers Order of New Zealand and the Pacific, Fremlin said it's not enough. Speaking to Pacific Waves , Fremlin said culture and faith prevents many people in the Pacific from speaking out. "It's a Pacific island thing, everybody looks upon the church as messengers of God, and so for people to talk about it... it's a taboo thing," he said. Seeking mental health support is also a struggle for Fremlin. Photo: Supplied "So here, we don't have any specialists where survivors can go to for counselling. The church here has offered counselling but the counsellors here belong to the church itself. So when you go for counselling, you report back to the church." Fremlin also expressed his dissatisfaction over Pope Leo's appointment as the new pontiff, claiming the former cardinal had allegedly concealed abuse cases of three women while he served as a bishop in Peru in 2022. However, Fremlin said the onus is now on Pope Leo to stand with abuse survivors, calling for him to enact the zero tolerance law. The newly elected Pope Leo waves from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on Thursday. Photo: Francesco Sforza/Vatican Media/Reuters via CNN Newsource An earlier attempt was done in November 2024 when former Jesuit priest, Reverand Hans Zollner, joined abuse survivors at a press conference in Rome urging Pope Francis to apply the zero-tolerance law throughout the entire 1.4 billion-member church. The law would effectively remove any priests guilty of abuse from the ministry. For Fremlin, it's about taking concrete steps in protecting the most vulnerable. "When survivors tried to seek or converse with the church, the church gives them the runaround, and always the lawyers," he said. "My experience in Fiji is that they bring up the lawyers and then they hide behind the lawyers you know, so I wish the pope would come on this - it's just something that he can put into law that the survivors can go to, without the church giving them the runarounds." In a statement sent to RNZ Pacific, the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference said significant work has been undertaken to "promote a culture of awareness and vigilance". An immediate risk assessment is carried out once a complainant in New Zealand comes forward. Any risk identified would result in the accused priest to step down. For those convicted of abuse, the conference said the policies in place would permanently remove them from the ministry. The conference also said that abuse survivors can seek a mental health counsellor of their choice. "If they don't have already a counsellor, the church can provide them a list of counsellors to choose from - with some or all being people without ties to the church." Even if Pope Leo was to eventually adopt a zero-tolerance policy, Fremlin said it'll do little to restore his faith in the church. "It's like asking the cow to jump over the moon. It's very hard for [the survivors] to come out openly. "We're just hoping for something concrete you know, written in black and white, that states they're doing something about it." A general view shows Pope Leo XIV leading a Holy Mass for the Beginning of his Pontificate, in St Peter's square in The Vatican Photo: AFP / TIZIANA FABI A long-standing advocate of Pacific abuse survivors said they deserve more justice. Dr Murray Heasley, who was instrumental in Fremlin's case, said the payout that Fremlin and his brother John received is "outrageous". "It's about dignity; it's about human rights," he said. "How can you be paying a fraction of the money to a Fijian survivor abused by a New Zealander in Fiji, particularly if you take into consideration some of the notion of the colonial background and the assumption of superiority of Western culture at the time... The colonial mentality seems to still be in place. "If you happen to be a Fijian survivor that got sexually molested by a New Zealander, you're worth less as a human being? Than a Pasifika abused in New Zealand? Why the differentiation? "It's absolutely outrageous and it has to be revisited now. The FMS Marist Brothers have massive resources." The New Zealand Bishop Conference said each case that the church considers is unique and so is each response. Part of the response can include an ex gratia payment to a survivor as part of the 'healing process'. However, they also said that "comparisons cannot be made between different cases across the various components of each process". Last year, New Zealand journalist Pete McKenzie broke the story in the New York Times of how the Pacific was used as a 'dumping ground' for accused priests . Heasley said it was a 'standard procedure'. "It's extremely common to shift predators around. It was called the geographic cure. It didn't cure anything. "The worst predators were those who were fluent in the local language, Fiji and Samoan and Tongan, because parents trusted them. They used the language to predate and groom." The New Zealand Catholic Bishop's Conference responded with a statement they had issued last year in response to McKenzie's story. "We were given 10 or 11 specific names and NONE had any record of allegations of abuse before they were assigned to ministry in the Pacific. It was anything but 'common practice', the statement said. "Catholic priests and religious [orders] have regularly been appointed to the Pacific Islands to support the faith life of communities there. For many religious orders, the Pacific is part of the same province as New Zealand. "There is no record of any of the nine men about whom [McKenzie] enquired being accused of abuse before the order of diocese appointed to them to the Pacific. Allegations against some were not received until after their death." Photo: ALBERTO PIZZOLI As for Pope Leo's alleged handling of abuse cases in Peru, Heasley said he's concerned. "We've seen pushback from people inside the Catholic Church calling these women 'liars'. It's an astonishing thing where you have so-called advocates of women's voices, the silence of women's voices coming in behind the pope who they see as a fellow Peruvian because he has joint citizenship ." He said canon lawyer Brendan Daly has called the sexual abuse of children the greatest threat to the Catholic church. "None of these folks are dealing with this, and even to this point, with this new pope has yet to say anything except to deny the accusation. He has not reached out to sexual survivors, and without that, he is not an acceptable pope." The New Zealand Catholic Bishop Conference said there are many first-hand reports "including from victims and survivors of abuse" that have shared their appreciation for how well then-Bishop Prevost handled the cases in Peru. "He played a pivotal role in having a religious community shut down - which is a rare and severe course of action," the statement read.
The Sun
09-06-2025
- The Sun
Shocking number of sex offences reported in the military last year revealed as ‘little progress made' stopping attacks
A SEX offence was reported nearly every day in the military last year. In all, 357 investigations were launched — including into 55 alleged rapes, 229 sexual assaults and 14 cases of voyeurism. 2 It reflects an earlier MoD revelation that it paid £3.3million in compensation to personnel who were victims of sexual assault in the past five years. Of the suspects in the latest figures, 205 were in the Army, 50 in the Navy and 59 the RAF. In the other cases the identity of the suspect was unknown. Ex-Army intelligence officer Col Philip Ingram said: 'The military keep quoting a zero- tolerance policy but in reality, that is all they are doing about the scourge of sexual assaults. 'There is little real action or progress and no support for commanders trying to identify and root it out.' Two thirds of the alleged offences happened in the UK. There were 25 reported crimes in Cyprus, 18 in Germany, seven on the Falklands and two in Gibraltar. Two dated to the 1970s, six to the 1980s and four to the 1990s. In October an investigation into abuse on UK submarines found 'intolerable' misogyny and bullying. It followed claims made by ex-lieutenant Sophie Brook. The MoD says it is creating a tri-service team to tackle complants, while an independent Armed Forces Commissioner will make unannounced visits. 2
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pope meets child protection advisory board amid call for zero tolerance on abuse
Pope Leo XIV met with members of the Vatican's child protection advisory commission on Thursday for the first time amid questions about his past handling of clergy sex abuse cases. There are also demands from survivors that he enacts a true policy of zero tolerance for abuse across the Catholic Church. The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which is made up of religious and lay experts in fighting abuse as well as survivors, called the hour-ong audience a 'significant moment of reflection, dialogue, and renewal of the church's unwavering commitment to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable people'. The group said it updated history's first American pope on its activities, including an initiative to help church communities in poorer parts of the world prevent abuse and care for victims. The Vatican did not provide the text of Leo's remarks or make the audio of the audience available to reporters. Pope Francis created the commission early on in his pontificate to advise the church on best practices and placed a trusted official, Boston's then-archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, in charge. But as the abuse scandal spread globally during Francis' 12-year pontificate, the commission lost its influence its crowning recommendation — the creation of a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for predator priests — went nowhere. After many years of reform and new members, it has become a place where victims can go to be heard and bishops can get advice on crafting guidelines to fight abuse. Cardinal O'Malley turned 80 last year and retired as archbishop of Boston, but he remains president of the commission and headed the delegation meeting with Leo in the Apostolic Palace. It has often fallen to Cardinal O'Malley to speak out on cases that have arrived at the Vatican, including one that remains on Leo's desk: The fate of the ex-Jesuit artist, the Rev Marko Rupnik, who has been accused by two dozen women of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse over decades. After coming under criticism that a fellow Jesuit had apparently received preferential treatment, Francis in 2023 ordered the Vatican to waive the statute of limitations on the case and prosecute him canonically. But as recently as March, the Vatican still had not found judges to open the trial. Meanwhile, the victims are still waiting for justice and Rev Rupnik continues to minister, with his supporters defending him and denouncing a 'media lynching' campaign against him. Leo, the Chicago-born former Cardinal Robert Prevost, has been credited by victims of helping to dismantle an abusive Catholic movement in Peru, where he served as bishop for many years. But other survivors have asked him to account for other cases while he was a superior in the Augustinian religious order, bishop in Peru and head of the Vatican's bishops' office. The main US survivor group, Snap, has also called for Leo to adopt the US policy calling for any priest who has been credibly accused of abuse to be permanently removed from ministry.
BreakingNews.ie
05-06-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Pope meets child protection advisory board amid call for zero tolerance on abuse
Pope Leo XIV met with members of the Vatican's child protection advisory commission on Thursday for the first time amid questions about his past handling of clergy sex abuse cases. There are also demands from survivors that he enacts a true policy of zero tolerance for abuse across the Catholic Church. Advertisement The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which is made up of religious and lay experts in fighting abuse as well as survivors, called the hour-ong audience a 'significant moment of reflection, dialogue, and renewal of the church's unwavering commitment to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable people'. The group said it updated history's first American pope on its activities, including an initiative to help church communities in poorer parts of the world prevent abuse and care for victims. The Vatican did not provide the text of Leo's remarks or make the audio of the audience available to reporters. Pope Francis created the commission early on in his pontificate to advise the church on best practices and placed a trusted official, Boston's then-archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, in charge. Advertisement But as the abuse scandal spread globally during Francis' 12-year pontificate, the commission lost its influence its crowning recommendation — the creation of a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for predator priests — went nowhere. After many years of reform and new members, it has become a place where victims can go to be heard and bishops can get advice on crafting guidelines to fight abuse. Cardinal O'Malley turned 80 last year and retired as archbishop of Boston, but he remains president of the commission and headed the delegation meeting with Leo in the Apostolic Palace. It has often fallen to Cardinal O'Malley to speak out on cases that have arrived at the Vatican, including one that remains on Leo's desk: The fate of the ex-Jesuit artist, the Rev Marko Rupnik, who has been accused by two dozen women of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse over decades. Advertisement After coming under criticism that a fellow Jesuit had apparently received preferential treatment, Francis in 2023 ordered the Vatican to waive the statute of limitations on the case and prosecute him canonically. But as recently as March, the Vatican still had not found judges to open the trial. Meanwhile, the victims are still waiting for justice and Rev Rupnik continues to minister, with his supporters defending him and denouncing a 'media lynching' campaign against him. Leo, the Chicago-born former Cardinal Robert Prevost, has been credited by victims of helping to dismantle an abusive Catholic movement in Peru, where he served as bishop for many years. But other survivors have asked him to account for other cases while he was a superior in the Augustinian religious order, bishop in Peru and head of the Vatican's bishops' office. Advertisement The main US survivor group, Snap, has also called for Leo to adopt the US policy calling for any priest who has been credibly accused of abuse to be permanently removed from ministry.
The Independent
05-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Pope meets with child protection advisory board amid survivor calls for zero tolerance on abuse
Pope Leo XIV met with members of the Vatican's child protection advisory commission on Thursday for the first time amid questions about his past handling of clergy sex abuse cases and demands from survivors that he enact a true policy of zero tolerance for abuse across the Catholic Church. The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which is made up of religious and lay experts in fighting abuse as well as survivors, called the hourlong audience a 'significant moment of reflection, dialogue, and renewal of the church's unwavering commitment to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable people.' The group said it updated history's first American pope on its activities, including an initiative to help church communities in poorer parts of the world prevent abuse and care for victims. The Vatican did not provide the text of Leo's remarks or make the audio of the audience available to reporters. Pope Francis created the commission early on in his pontificate to advise the church on best practices and placed a trusted official, Boston's then-archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, in charge. But as the abuse scandal spread globally during Francis' 12-year pontificate, the commission lost its influence its crowning recommendation — the creation of a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for predator priests — went nowhere. After many years of reform and new members, it has become a place where victims can go to be heard and bishops can get advice on crafting guidelines to fight abuse. O'Malley turned 80 last year and retired as archbishop of Boston, but he remains president of the commission and headed the delegation meeting with Leo in the Apostolic Palace. It has often fallen to O'Malley to speak out on egregious cases that have arrived at the Vatican, including one that remains on Leo's desk: The fate of the ex-Jesuit artist, the Rev. Marko Rupnik, who has been accused by two dozen women of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse over decades. After coming under criticism that a fellow Jesuit had apparently received preferential treatment, Francis in 2023 ordered the Vatican to waive the statute of limitations on the case and prosecute him canonically. But as recently as March, the Vatican still hadn't found judges to open the trial. Meanwhile, the victims are still waiting for justice and Rupnik continues to minister, with his supporters defending him and denouncing a 'media lynching' campaign against him. Leo, the Chicago-born former Cardinal Robert Prevost, has been credited by victims of helping to dismantle an abusive Catholic movement in Peru, where he served as bishop for many years. But other survivors have asked him to account for other cases while he was a superior in the Augustinian religious order, bishop in Peru and head of the Vatican's bishops' office. The main U.S. survivor group, SNAP, has also called for Leo to adopt the U.S. policy calling for any priest who has been credibly accused of abuse to be permanently removed from ministry. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
