From Italy to Sweden, from Romania to Portugal: 

In recent months, portraits and video interviews of nearly 100 victims of child abuse have been collected throughout Europe. Never has the dimension of the problem been captured in this way.
 

Photos and videos from award-winning journalist Simone Padovani documenting the injustices now give the victims a voice. The exhibition entitled "Shame - European Stories" first opened during the Biennale of Venice. The exhibition, a tool for creating awareness in citizens, is under the patronage of the Council of Europe and has been launched by Guido Fluri Foundation. It will travel around Europe in order to increase the awareness in all the european citizen and institutions with the final goal of changing the law in terms of the protection of minors. 

Ending Clergy Abuse: ECA is honored to host this exhibition in Rome during our March to Zero Events. MORE INFORMATION WILL BE POSTED HERE.    

When Pope Francis travels to a country where the clergy sex abuse crisis has erupted, he meets with victims, expresses shame and sorrow, and promises change. He did this during his 2015 visit to the United States, his visit to Chile in January 2018, his visit to Ireland in August 2018, and his visit to Canada in 2022.

But when the Pope visits a country where the bishops are not reckoning with headlines about abuse, he does not meet with victims. He did not hold such meetings in Hungary, the Congo, Romania, or Panama, even though the church’s victims in each of those countries surely also number in the thousands.  

The Pope’s meetings with victims are about public relations, not change. And at this point in his papacy, the tactic is not only tired, it’s cynical. An apology without true reform is worse than meaningless. It’s disrespectful.  

MORE FROM BISHOPACCOUNTABILITY.ORG

A U.S.-based group issued a list of 16 Mexican bishops and high-ranking clerics who allegedly covered up for priests accused of sexual abuse.

Massachusetts-based BishopAccountability.org, a non-profit organization that keeps track of how the Catholic hierarchy deals with allegations of sexual abuse by clergy, said that the Roman Catholic Church officials, some now retired, had “covered up for” abusers.

“We have now identified some leaders of the Catholic Church who appear to have covered, covered up for, abusers and discarded their victims,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, of BishopAccountability.org.

MORE FROM AP NEWS ARTICLE

MORE FROM ABC NEWS

A UCA: Union of Catholic Asian News Report: On June 1, the Vatican accepted the resignation of Indian Bishop Franco Mulakkal, almost five years after police arrested him on charges of raping a nun.

The Vatican “requested” his resignation, said a statement from the apostolic nunciature in India, adding that this action should not be seen as a “disciplinary measure imposed upon” the bishop.

The Mulakkal case has once again revived the demand for speedy and transparent action into allegations of clerical abuse in India as delays can lead to embarrassment for  Christians, who make up 2.3 percent in the Hindu majority nation of 1.4 billion people.

The Vatican's move in the Mulakkal case came 18 months after a lower court acquitted him, and when an appeal against the acquittal is pending in a higher court.

Mulakkal is the fourth Catholic bishop to resign over allegations of sexual abuse in India — all in the past 15 years.

In all four cases, the hierarchy failed to act on its own against the accused but moved only after public outrage and police complaints. Even when acted upon, the hierarchy made no public report of its investigation on the allegations nor explained reasons for removing the person.

MORE ON THE UCA REPORT HERE

Two key Vatican investigators have begun an audit in Peru’s capital of a secretive Roman Catholic society with chapters across South America and in the U.S. following allegations that its founder sexually molested young recruits.

Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, questioned the society’s spokespeople along with alleged abuse victims and journalists who have written on the case. Journalist Pedro Salinas, ECA Member in Peru, was a part of Tuesday’s questioning which took place in the Apostolic Nunciature in Lima.

The scandal at the Peru-based Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, or Sodalitium of Christian Life, has close parallels to other cases of charismatic Catholic leaders in Latin America being accused of sex abuse — as well as the church dragging its feet on investigating claims and trying to keep scandals quiet.

MORE ON AP NEWS REPORT HERE

MORE ON CRUX NEWS STORY HERE

The Catholic Church has overseen the world’s longest lasting and most widespread campaign of institutional sexual abuse. Why is it that after sixteen centuries of documented evidence and decades of continuous international public exposure, new revelations of the scope and magnitude of the abuse crisis continue to shock the public?

Sarah Peterson, Deputy Director of Nate’s Mission, which is a Wisconsin-based initiative of Ending Clergy Abuse - USA, created a documentary film featuring former and current priests who reveal how clerical pedophilia is not a phenomenon that occurs as the result of an external perversion of the Catholic hierarchy, but rather, a distinct form of sexual violence that is produced, manufactured, and reproduced within the clerical system.  SEE FULL DOCUMENTARY HERE.

Once you've viewed the film, please don't keep it to yourself. Share the link with family, friends, and your social media audience to spread the word about the work survivors and advocates around the world are doing to combat sexual violence in the Catholic Church.