Spanish court charges 10 priest for child sexual abuse
A judge in Spain has charged 10 Roman Catholic priests with sexually abusing a child in the 2000s.
The priests were charged on Tuesday, five months after Pope Francis phoned the victim to offer the Catholic establishment’s apology.
According to the court, the abuse started when the victim was a 14-year-old altar boy and lasted until he was 17, in a house rented by the perpetrators in the Spanish city of Granada.
The victim, now 24 years old, had written to the pope explaining the abuse. In August the Pope phoned the victim.
Following the papal conversation, which was later confirmed by the pope himself, an official church investigation was opened, during which the Archbishop of Granada, Francisco Javier Martinez, dismissed several priests, who were linked to the case.
Earlier reports
According to earlier reports, the victim maintained links with the Roman Catholic Church, by teaching in the conservative Opus Dei organization.
He had told authorities that he believed other children were also abused by the same group, whose members also had sexual relations with each other.
Zero tolerance
The pope has promised a zero tolerance policy for child sex abuse by clerics following a multitude of scandals related to the church over the last few years.
Rights groups representing victims say that not enough has been done.
According to the Vatican, around 850 priests accused of the sexual abuse of minors have been defrocked between 2004 and 2013.
The Roman Catholic Church has been hit by numerous scandals in the US and Europe in the past few years, including allegations of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests to protect the pedophiles as well as its own reputation.
SRK/MHB/AS
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