Vatican's top abuse investigator Maltese archbishop Charles Scicluna (right) and fellow papal envoy Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu give a press conference at the Apostolic Nunciature in Santiago, Chile, on June 19, 2018. / Claudio Reyes/AFP via Getty ImagesACI Prensa Staff, May 23, 2023 / 15:01 pm (CNA).In the wake of a new wave of scandals due to allegations of sexual abuse of minors committed by members of various religious orders in the country, the Bolivian Bishops Conference has announced that Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, an official of the Vatican s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, will arrive in the country to examine the progress being made in abuse prevention.In a statement posted May 21 on their website, the bishops point out that they themselves requested that the expert priest come to the country. According to the bishops, the visit had already been in the works for three years.The conference said that in the coming days "meetings of a reflective nature" will
Shellyne Rodriguez vandalized a pro-life display on May 2 that was sponsored by Students for Life of America. / YouTube/Students For Life May 18, 2023, YouTube/Whitney Museum of American Art Feb 28, 2018Boston, Mass., May 23, 2023 / 14:29 pm (CNA).A professor at Hunter College in New York City who vandalized a pro-life display on May 2 that was sponsored by Students for Life of America has been fired.The new development comes the same day that the New York Post reported that the same professor, Shellyne Rodriguez, chased one of the outlet s reporters with a machete after he tried to ask her questions outside of her Bronx apartment.Rodriguez, who was an adjunct assistant professor and a member of the public university s studio art faculty, is shown in a video insulting a group of pro-life students with expletives, while criticizing their display."You re not educating s . This is f propaganda," she said to the students.Rodriguez can be seen flipping a case holding fetal mod
Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, Ill., mother church of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Credit: Edlane De Mattos/Shutterstock. / nullCNA Newsroom, May 23, 2023 / 15:27 pm (CNA).A report published by the Illinois attorney general s office alleges that 451 Catholic clerics and religious brothers sexually abused 1,997 victims within the state s Catholic dioceses over a 70-year period. The report, published May 23, unveils a comprehensive list of "substantiated child sex abuse" allegations, which the attorney general s office compiled with assistance from each of the six dioceses in Illinois. The report covers allegations from 1950 through 2019.Investigators from the attorney general s office reviewed more than 100,000 pages of documents provided by the dioceses related to abuse allegations and policies and procedures on how they dealt with the allegations. They also conducted interviews with diocesan representatives and with numerous victims who made the allegations. T
null / Credit: Pixabay (Public Domain)ACI Prensa Staff, May 22, 2023 / 15:45 pm (CNA).In the midst of allegations of sexual abuse against Jesuit priests in Bolivia, a Carmelite priest was arrested recently by the authorities, and accusations against another Carmelite and a Franciscan have come to light.In a statement to the Bolivian newspaper Página Siete, a former seminarian of the Carmelite order reported in 2014 that he was sexually abused by Father Milton Murillo when the priest was the administrator of the formation house in La Paz. According to the complainant, Murillo allegedly pressured seminarians to let him give them a medical examination in which inappropriate touching occurred. Whoever refused, the complainant said, was exposed to reprisals or being expelled from the community.The former seminarian said a group of seminarians tried to inform the then Carmelite superior, Father Garvin Grech, about what was happening without getting any results.Página Siete noted that.
null / Todd Ruth on Unsplash.Washington D.C., May 22, 2023 / 15:15 pm (CNA).A Massachusetts government agency is asking lawmakers to review the state s child abuse laws to ensure they apply to parents who won t let their children transition from one gender to another.The Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth cited a purported rise in transphobia as a reason to amend the state s child abuse laws. The commission is an official state agency that provides recommendations to lawmakers. "With the significant rise in public transphobia across the state, the commission has serious concerns about the well-being of trans and gender expansive youth in the home, and advises that the state examine current laws around child abuse and welfare to ensure that the unique situations faced by LGBTQ youth are being addressed," the commission wrote in an annual report and recommendations for the 2024 fiscal year. "In particular, the commission recommends that the state e