In the Pacific, a 'Dumping Ground' for Priests Accused or Convicted of Abuse

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pacific-dumping-ground-priests-accused-121600056.html

In the Pacific, a ‘Dumping Ground’ for Priests Accused or Convicted of Abuse

SUVA, Fiji — Pope Francis was expected to be welcomed by children bearing flowers, a 21-gun salute and a candlelight vigil after landing in Papua New Guinea on Friday. It would be the first papal visit in three decades to the Pacific islands, a deeply Christian region — but one that has played a little-known role in the clergy abuse scandal that has stained the Roman Catholic Church.

Over several decades, at least 10 priests and missionaries moved to Papua New Guinea after they had allegedly sexually abused children, or had been found to do so, in the West, according to court records, government inquiries, survivor testimonies, news media reports and comments by church officials.

These men were part of a larger pattern: At least 24 other priests and missionaries left New Zealand, Australia, Britain and the United States for Pacific island countries such as Fiji, Kiribati and Samoa under similar circumstances. In at least 13 cases, their superiors knew that these men had been accused or convicted of abuse before they transferred to the Pacific, according to church records and survivor accounts, shielding them from scrutiny.

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Christopher Longhurst, a New Zealand-based spokesperson for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a support group, said the organization plans to press the pope on the movement of the priests to the Pacific while he is in Papua New Guinea.