International
Church charges ceased or resigned in the papacy of Francis for cases of pedophilia
The fight against pedophasty within the Church was one of Francis’ objectives during the twelve years that his papacy lasted, in which there were cemiss and dismissals of members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy involved in these cases.
Among the most prominent are the following:
01.10.2013.- Francis accepts the resignation of Bishop William Lee of Waterford and Lismore (Ireland), after he admitted his ‘inappropriate’ performance in a case of alleged sexual abuse in 1993 committed by a priest of his diocese.
23.09.2014.- Josef Wesolowski, Vatican nuncio in the Dominican Republic between 2008 and 2013, was expelled from the priesthood and his responsibility at the head of the Nunciature after being subjected to a canonical process instructed by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, for his alleged ‘serious acts of child abuse in the Dominican Republic’.
On September 23, 2014, by the will of Pope Francis, the former unnuncio was placed under house arrest inside the Vatican State. Weselowski died on August 28, 2015 in Rome, where he was waiting for the trial to be held.
09/25/2014.- Francisco replaces Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano, bishop of Ciudad del Este (Paraguay), for the defense he made of the Argentine priest Carlos Urrutigoity, suspended for pedophilia in the United States in 2002.
21.04.2015.- Pope Francis accepts the resignation of the bishop of Kansas City-Saint Joseph (USA), Robert W. Finn, three years after being convicted of hiding a possible case of pederasty by a priest from his diocese.
15.06.2015.- The Archbishop of Minneapolis (USA), John Nienstedt, and the assistant bishop Lee Piché resign when a report from the Minnesota Prosecutor’s Office is released that accuses the archdiocese of ignoring and treating inappropriately complaints of cases of pedophilia. The pope accepts his resignation.
29.07.2016.- The bishop of the Irish diocese of Galway and Kilmacduagh, Martin Drennan, resigns, pointed out in a 2009 report on the cover-up of cases of pederasty in the Church of Ireland. The pope accepts the resignation.
29.06.2017.- Francis grants ‘a period of leave’ to Cardinal George Pell, considered number 3 of the Vatican, responsible for the finances of the Catholic Church and maximum representative of the Australian Church, when he was charged by the police of the Australian state of Victoria for alleged crimes of pedophilia.
Pell was the first high-ranking Roman curia who in December 2018 was found guilty of sexually abusing two minors in the 1990s and sentenced to six years in prison. After spending thirteen months in prison, the sentence was reversed in 2020 and the religious was acquitted in the last appeal. He died in 2023.
18.05.2018.- All the bishops of Chile -34- present their resignation to the pope after several days of meetings with the Pontiff in the Vatican to discuss the serious errors and omissions in the management of cases of sexual abuse, especially those related to that of the bishop of Osorno, Juan Barros, accused of covering up the priest Fernando Karadima, sentenced in 2011 by the Canonical Justice to a life of imprisonment and penance for committing sexual abuse.
11.06.2018.- Pope Francis accepts the resignations of three bishops of Chile: Juan Barros, bishop of Osorno; Gonzalo Duarte García de Cortázar, from Valparaíso, and Cristiano Caro Cordero, from Puerto Montt, for lack of transparency of the Church in the management of cases of sexual abuse of minors.
28.07.2018.- Theodore McCarrick, cardinal and archbishop emeritus of Washington, is removed from his duties on June 20, 2018 after a commission of inquiry determined well-founded and credible accusations of sexual abuse committed by the purpardon when he was a priest in the archdiocese of New York.
30.07.2018.- Francis accepts the resignation of Philip Wilson, archbishop of Adelaide (Australia) after being sentenced to twelve months in prison for covering up a pedophile priest (James Fletcher) during the 1970s. Wilson was acquitted on December 6, 2018 after his appeal against the sentence of twelve months in prison was accepted, then transformed into twelve months of house arrest, of which he must serve six months.
13.09.2018.- Francis accepts the resignation of Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of the diocese of Wheeling-Charleston (USA), who in 2012 was accused with other clerics from Philadelphia of having sexually abused ten children in the late 70s and early 80s.
21.09.2018.- Pope Francis accepts the resignation of two new bishops of Chile: Carlos Pellegrín Barrera, from San Bartolomé de Chillán, and Cristián Contreras, from San Felipe, also for the scandals of sexual abuse of minors that shaken the Church of the country.
12.10.2018.- The pope accepts the resignation of the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who presented in September when he was accused of covering up cases of child abuse in the report of the Pennsylvania Prosecutor’s Office (USA).
07.03.2019.- Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon and primate of France since 2002, is sentenced to six months in prison for covering up acts of pederasty in that French diocese.
Barbarin, also sentenced to pay a symbolic compensation of one euro to the eight victims of the priest Bernard Preynat, whom the purpured man kept in charge of a parish in his diocese, presented his resignation to Pope Francis on March 18, 2019, which was rejected by invoking the pontiff ‘the presumption of innocence’. That day, the French prelate temporarily resigned from his position as Archbishop of Lyon.
23.03.2019.- Pope Francis accepts the resignation of the archbishop of Santiago de Chile, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, charged in his country for covering up cases of sexual abuse.
04.04.2019.- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith definitively expels Anthony Sablan Apuron from the position of archbishop of Agaña, on the island of Guam, for sexual abuse of minors.
10/17/2020.- Pope Francis accepts the resignation of the bishop of the diocese of Kalisz (central Poland), Edward Janiak, accused of having covered up cases of pedophilia in the country.
06.11.2020.- The apostolic nunciature of Poland communicates to the retired cardinal, Henryk Gulbinowicz, the prohibition of participating in public celebrations and the use of the bishop’s badge when he is accused of alleged sexual abuse.
29.03.2021.- In Poland, the Archbishop of Gdansk, Slawoj Leszek and the Bishop of Kalisz, Edward Janiak, are prohibited from residing in their respective headquarters and participating in religious celebrations for not reporting sexual abuse of minors.
The pope grants Stefan HeBe, Archbishop of Cologne (West Germany), the situation of ‘rest’ for alleged evidence of non-compliance with his duty to communicate and clarify alleged sexual abuse on eleven occasions between 1975 and 2018.
06.28.2021.- Polish Bishop Zbigniew Kiernikowski is replaced by the Vatican after an investigation into negligence in relation to sexual abuse in the diocese of Siedle (east).
29.08.2021.- The pope accepts the resignation of Australian Bishop Christopher Alan Saunders, at the head of the diocese of Broome, in which he had been since 1996, when he was investigated for alleged sexual abuse.
07.11.2022.- Jean-Pierre Ricard, cardinal, archbishop emeritus of Bordeaux since 2019, announces his withdrawal from his religious duties by recognizing a ‘reprehensible’ attitude with a 14-year-old girl in the late 1980s.
01.06.2023.- Pope Francis accepts the resignation presented by Bishop Jalandhar Mulakkal, in Punjab (India), who had already been momentarily suspended from his position also at his own request in 2021, due to the complaint filed in 2018 by a nun following alleged and repeated violations that occurred in Kerala between 2014 and 2016.
The prelate, who was arrested and remained in police custody for weeks before obtaining bail for it, was acquitted of those accusations by an Indian court in 2022 in a scandal that shook India’s Christian opinion.
09.03.2024.- Francisco accepts the resignation of Andrzej Franciszek Dziuba, bishop of the diocese of Lowicz, in Poland, accused of negligence in the management of sexual abuse against minors after several complaints filed with the Holy See.
02.04.2024.- Pope Francis accepts the resignation of José Antonio Eguren Anselmi, Archbishop of Piura, Peru, after accusations of having covered up sexual abuse by Luis Fernando Figari, founder of Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, the religious congregation intervened in 2018 by the Vatican, after the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office asked for preventive detention for several members and former members of the organization, including Figari.
11.09.2024.- The pope accepts the resignation of Heinz-Günter Bongartz, auxiliary bishop of Hildesheim in Germany, six months before the age limit to remain in office, due to the accusations of families who are victims of abuse of hiding these alleged facts.
International
Kristi Noem credits Trump for mass migrant deportations by mexican president
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claimed that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has deported “more than half a million” migrants due to pressure from former President Donald Trump.
During a cabinet meeting highlighting the “achievements” of Trump’s administration in its first 100 days, Noem asserted that under the Republican leader’s influence, “Mexico has finally come to the table” to negotiate on migration and fentanyl trafficking.
“The president of Mexico told me she has returned just over half a million people before they reached our border,” Noem stated, criticizing media reports that suggest the Biden administration deported more migrants than Trump’s.
“I wish those deportations were counted,” Noem added, “because those people never made it to our border—she sent them back because you made her.” She went on to thank Trump: “They never made it here because they got the message—because you were so aggressive.”
Noem has made controversial claims about Sheinbaum in the past, prompting the Mexican leader to refute them.
On April 1, Sheinbaum responded to one such statement by declaring, “The president answers to only one authority, and that is the people of Mexico,” after Noem said on Fox News that she gave Sheinbaum “a list of things Trump would like to see” and that Mexico’s actions would determine whether Trump granted tariff relief.
International
Vatican releases special “Sede Vacante” stamps ahead of papal transition
he Vatican’s post offices and select collector shops began selling special edition stamps this week to mark the period between the death of Pope Francis and the election of his successor.
Known as “Sede Vacante” stamps, they feature an image used on official Vatican documents during the interregnum between popes — two crossed keys without the papal tiara. These stamps went on sale Monday and will remain valid for postal use only until the new pontiff appears at the window overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
Until then, they can be used to send letters, postcards, and parcels. “Once the new pope is elected, the stamps lose their postal validity, but their collectible value rises,” said Francesco Santarossa, who runs a collectors’ shop across from St. Peter’s Square.
The Vatican has issued the stamps in four denominations: €1.25, €1.30, €2.45, and €3.20. Each is inscribed with “Città del Vaticano” and “Sede Vacante MMXXV” — Latin for “Vacant See 2025.”
International
Conclave to choose pope Francis’ successor could begin in early may
The conclave, which in the coming weeks must choose the successor to Pope Francis, will strictly follow a precise protocol refined over centuries.
The 135 cardinal electors, all under the age of 80, will cast their votes four times a day — except on the first day — until one candidate secures a two-thirds majority. The result will be announced to the world through the burning of the ballots with a chemical that produces the eagerly awaited white smoke, accompanied by the traditional cry of “Habemus Papam.”
The start date for the conclave could be announced today, as the cardinals are set to hold their fifth meeting since the pope’s passing. Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich suggested it could begin on May 5 or 6, following the traditional nine days of mourning. According to German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the conclave could last only “a few days.”
Although the late Argentine pontiff appointed the majority of the cardinal electors, this does not necessarily ensure the selection of a like-minded successor. Francis’ leadership style differed significantly from that of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, a German theologian who was less fond of large public gatherings. It also marked a contrast with the popular Polish pope, John Paul II.
The Argentine Jesuit’s reformist papacy drew strong criticism from more conservative sectors of the Church, who are hoping for a doctrinally focused shift. His tenure was marked by efforts to combat clerical sexual abuse, elevate the role of women and laypeople, and advocate for the poor and migrants, among other causes.
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Vatican releases special “Sede Vacante” stamps ahead of papal transition
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