SOUTH AFRICA
Times LIVE
André Jurgens | 07 December, 2015
Catholic priests have been implicated in 33 cases of sexual abuse in South Africa.
Cardinal Wilfrid Napier issued a public apology 13 years ago, promising sweeping reforms after sexual abuse by priests was exposed in an international scandal.
That painful chapter of history is back on the agenda after being made into an acclaimed film that will be screened in South Africa next year. Spotlight relates how the Boston Globe exposed clergy abuse in the US during an investigation that morphed into a global scandal.
The secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Sister Hermenegild Makoro, said 33 cases of clergy sexual abuse had been reported since the scandal broke in 2003.
Of those, seven were reported to police. One priest was charged and later prosecuted in Germany. Two more priests were dismissed. The remainder were either still under investigation or the complaints had been withdrawn.
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