The Catholic Church in Sweden received pedophile-accused priests

The Teller Report
October 06, 2019

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The Swedish Catholic Church is now being pulled into the international pedophile scandal, with priests suspected of committing child abuse. here.

It is in new documents that came from two Catholic parishes in the United States that the two priests are named. They have also worked in Sweden during the 2000s, and have been accused of abuse here as well.

An increasing number of Catholic parishes in the United States have opened their archives and published lists of priests that the churches' own investigations have shown have so-called "credible accusations" of sexual offenses against children.

The priest was moved to Sweden

One of the cases that Meredith Colias-Pete of the Post Tribune newspaper in Gary outside Chicago has examined concerns a priest who was later moved to Sweden. He was active in three different parishes in Gary during the 1980s. In the document the congregation published last year, the priest is listed as "credibly accused" of abuse against six children.

"The problem is that it is the church's own investigation that has determined which have been" credibly accused ", and that they have not handed over the cases to the police," says Meredith Colias-Pete.

Marie Siroky, a former Gary nun, is one of those who made an alarm about the priest. She says he also assaulted her when she was a young driver.

- He had sex with me. I had been drinking and he didn't take a no like no. After that I told him that "I stand outside the room and watch" when he was alone with children. I have accused myself so much for not doing more.

Sense of erection

It was only when the church went public with the information about the man that Marie Siroky felt she was being restored.

- I left the Catholic Church a long time ago, but it feels so important that we who have been abused are recognized by the Church.

The priest who worked in Gary's congregation was placed in Sweden in 2000.

SVT has sought the priest, and read the man's CV, which has now been removed from the Catholic Church's server. But the Swedish Catholic Church's communications officer Kristina Hellner confirms that the man worked in Sweden. First a few years in Gothenburg, then in Falun.

In Falun, he was accused of sexual assault, this time against a woman. But neither in Sweden did the Catholic Church go to the police with the charge.

- It's a charismatic priest who thinks he can heal. It was during such a healing session that he molested her, says Kristina Hellner.

But the woman did not want to report to the police, and then Bishop Anders Arborelius then requested that the priest be moved and reported the incident to the priest's superior.

SVT has spoken to the man, who is now 78 years old. He denies that this has happened.

Another accused priest

The second priest found in one of the documents the Catholic Church released in the United States comes from Southeast Asia and was ordained a priest in Oslo. When he worked as a priest in San Bernardino in 1993, he was reported to police for sex with minors. But the police investigation was closed when the child did not want to testify.The priest was forced to quit but came to Malmö in 2003, where he worked for a year.

There he was accused of molesting a man in the congregation and also allowed him to leave Sweden. SVT has sought him but has not been able to reach him. None of the priests were reported to the police by the church.

"Did Not Know"

There is a system of letters of recommendation within the Catholic Church; But it is not always certain that it is completely true there, says Kristina Hellner.

"That's what we want to control now," says Kristina Hellner.

- But we didn't know anything from the US when they came here.

SVT: Why don't you have police reports of sexual abuse in Sweden? -

- It is difficult to do when only someone has told us and the victims then do not want to go further.

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