As abuse crisis expands to Global South, Vatican has questions to answer
The abuse scandal in the Catholic Church is beginning to impact the Global South, with news this week that Nobel Peace Prize winner and East Timor independence hero, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, had restrictions imposed on him by the Vatican following allegations that he abused boys in the 1990s. As reported by the Associated Press, the admission came after Dutch magazine - De Groene Amsterdammer – first exposed the claims, citing two alleged victims and reporting there were others who had not come forward. We now know the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was involved in the case as of 2019, that the Vatican imposed restrictions in 2020, and that these restrictions were “modified and reinforced” in 2021.
