DHAKA (BANGLADESH)
UCANews
June 15, 2018
By Rock Ronald Rozario and Stephan Uttom
Despite the Vatican judging allegations against William Christensen to be credible in 2010, he is still working with children
An American priest who was dismissed from the clergy by the Vatican after being accused of sexually abusing as many as 30 teenagers in Bangladesh is still in the country.
William Andrew Christensen, a priest in the Society of Mary, or Marianists, was removed from the priesthood in October 2010 after the Vatican judged allegations against him to be credible.
In January 2011, ucanews.com published a story quoting Catholic human rights activist Rosaline Costa, who claimed that Christensen used the Institute of Integrated Rural Development (IIRD), which he founded in Bogra district in 1987, as a front to sexually abuse at least 30 Muslim teenagers in rural Bangladesh.
He was accused of buying the silence of the youngsters, their parents and local political and community leaders.
Christensen was accused of abusing a pupil at a school in St. Louis, Missouri, before coming to Bangladesh but a lawsuit filed in 2002 collapsed when the complainant died.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.