February 02, 2006

Vatican official wanted on Ontario sex charges

CANADA
Globe and Mail

By GREG MCARTHUR

Thursday, February 2, 2006 Posted at 5:11 AM EST

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Ontario Provincial Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of a retired Vatican official, a Canadian, who was close with Pope John Paul II and is now wanted on sex abuse charges.

Monsignor Bernard Prince, 71, who once travelled the world promoting Catholicism as the secretary general for the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith and is now retired in Rome, has been accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy.

The alleged victim, who is now in his 50s, came forward months ago, claiming he was molested when he was an altar boy at the church where Father Prince served in the Upper Ottawa Valley during the late 1960s.

Detectives are also interviewing several other men who as boys attended the church or spent time at Father Prince's cottage in the small town of Wilno, Ont.

Posted by kshaw at February 2, 2006 06:35 AM