New Italian clerical child abuse scandal

In this video from Ireland, Michael O’Brien, who lost his mother as a child, and whose father was forced to hand him and his siblings over to be cared for by the church, speaks out about the abuse he suffered at the hands of “men of god”.

From ANSA news agency in Italy:

Italian priest arrested for alleged child abuse

Fresh blow to Church after series of scandals

26 May, 15:38

Rome, May 26 – An Italian priest has been arrested for alleged child abuse in a fresh blow to the Catholic Church, which has been shaken by a series of paedophile scandals.

Domenico Pezzini, 73, was detained by police in Milan earlier this week on suspicion of having sexual relations with a boy, who was 13 at the time of the alleged abuse. He is now 16 and living in a home for children needing special care and protection.

Child pornography was found in the home of the priest, who lives and works in Milan even though he answers to the Dioceses of the northern city of Lodi, police sources said.

“We are deeply saddened by the news of Don Domenico Pezzini’s arrest, which took us completely by surprise,” Lodi Bishop Monsignor Giuseppe Merisi said. “We are waiting for more details to help us clarify the nature of the affair, which we will look into with rigorous respect for Canon law and with faith in the criminal prosecutors”.

… The Catholic Church does not view having homosexual impulses as wrong, but it does believe it sinful to act on those impulses. The news is another big knock after child sex abuse scandals hit the Catholic Church in the United States, Australia, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Germany and Italy.

Critics have accused Pope Benedict XVI of failing to take proper action when he was head of the doctrinal office that deals with paedophilia cases.

The Vatican has said Benedict, on the contrary, made it easier to punish offenders as well as preventing paedophiles from becoming priests.

USA: The Ninth Circuit of Appeals determined that the Vatican could be a defendant in a case brought by a victim of abuse at the hands of a priest: here.

Church Excommunicates Nun for Approving Life-Saving Abortion: here.

Vatican’s sex abuse prosecutor says church must amputate to heal: here.

Bishop John Francis, a Pentecostal preacher and head of the Ruach Christian Ministry in Brixton, south-west London, has been slammed for allegedly linking homosexuality with paedophilia, rape and bestiality: here.

Woman: Church Covered Up My Rape as a Teen; Tells “Early Show” Deacon Impregnated Her in 1997, Church Elders Blamed Her: here.

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