Source: Chicago Catholic By Cindy Wooden | Catholic News Service Originally published on August 20, 2018 VATICAN CITY — “No effort must be spared” to prevent future cases of clerical sexual abuse and “to prevent the possibility of their being covered up,” Pope Francis said in a letter addressed “to the people of God.” “I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons,” the pope wrote in the letter dated and released Aug. 20. The letter was published less…
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Source: The New Yorker By James Carroll Pope Francis will make a fate-laden journey to Ireland this weekend. On Sunday, when he addresses a throng of Catholics in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, he will recall the last papal visit to Ireland, that of John Paul II, in 1979. But another papal address of that year should also come to mind. In June of 1979, John Paul II spoke to more than a million Poles in a field outside of Krakow and set in motion events that changed history. But that was then. Nowhere is the difference between what the Polish Pope confronted and…
Source: Kathimerini Cyprus Elena Frantzi’s foster dad priest defrocked by Holy Synod after public outcry following her death The Holy Synod [of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus] decided unanimously on Wednesday to defrock the priest who was convicted in 2015 for sexually assaulting Elena Frantzi, the 29-year-old woman whose recent death shocked the public and left church and state scramble for answers. The decision was taken unanimously by the 18 members of the Holy Synod, after the case against the priest of Tamasos and Orinis was brought back by the bishop of that diocese. The priest served 18 months in…
Source: Bangor Daily News By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff BANGOR, Maine — An organization that advocates for the victims of clergy abuse has called for the removal of the Greek Orthodox chancellor in Boston who oversaw a former Bangor priest now serving a prison sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage altar server. Adam Metropoulos, 54, is incarcerated at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham. He was sentenced in March 2015 on four felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor following a jury-waived trial to 12 years in prison with all but 6½ years suspended. The charges stemmed from Metropoulos’…
Source: The National Herald NEW YORK – Alex Prodes, a 53-year-old former Greek Orthodox priest (defrocked by choice), lives on his Social Security disability income, two years ago tried to kill himself. The divorced father of two – he sees his children only twice a year – referring to his failed suicide attempt, he asked his doctor: “why didn’t I die?” Prodes didn’t want to live anymore. He says that in 1979, 17 years old and the leader of the altar boys at the Evangelismos Church in Easton, PA, Prodes was sexually abused by Archimandrite Stanley Adamakis, and it was…
Source: Winnipeg Free Press A former high-ranking Orthodox archbishop should serve a year in jail for violating his position of trust and sexually molesting an altar boy in Winnipeg in the 1980s, prosecutors say. That’s was the Crown’s position as Seraphim (Kenneth) Storheim, 68, appeared for sentencing in the Court of Queen’s Bench Wednesday. “The hallmarks of this case are the abuse of trust, the abuse of a child and the historical nature,” Crown attorney Breta Passler told Justice Christopher Mainella. The Crown is seeking the term of real jail in hopes of sending a firm message to the general…