Sveriges Radio International
July 20, 2007
http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/International/nyhetssidor/artikel.asp?ProgramID=
2054&Nyheter=&artikel=1492238
Sweden — The Catholic church of Sweden has apologised for sex abuse against a child committed by a priest 50 years ago.
The abuse was said to have taken place over a period of two years at the end of the 1950s.
When the victim tried to draw attention to what was happening,the church protected the priest and kept the case quiet. The time period in which the Swedish priest could have been prosecuted has long since expired.
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| Bishop of the Catholic Church in Sweden, Anders Arborelius |
The victim, who has requested complete anonymity, reported the crime to the Catholic diocese in Stockholm at the end of 2005 and demanded a public apology from the church. The apology was printed in an advertisement in the newspapers Göteborgs-Posten and Dagen.
Church spokesman Jorge de Salas says he does not believe the problem is widespread in Sweden.
De Salas distanced the Swedish experience from the widely-reported abuses in the American Catholic church over the last 50 years.
He says some American bishops reacted wrongly to cases in the US, preferring to put priests through therapy and moving them to other congregations, rather than firing them.
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