Saturday, June 05, 2010

Danish Catholic priest suspended after church 'recently learned' about child pornography case

The Catholic Church took no action against priest convicted of downloading child pornography.

Despite being convicted of possessing child pornography in 2005, the Catholic Church in Denmark allowed a Catholic priest to continue carrying out his duties including teaching children and young people.

In this latest scandal to rock the Danish Catholic Church, it was announced that the priest had recently been suspended, but the church did not mention the reason.

The priest was convicted of paying for and downloading 38 movies involving minors. He was sentenced to pay 6,000 kroner and his computer was confiscated.

Bishop Czeslaw Kozlon, who is head of the Catholic Church in Denmark, did not inform the chair of the parish council in question why the priest had been relieved of his duties.

The council chair was said to have been shocked when informed by a journalist from the newspaper Politiken about the cause of the priest’s suspension.

Rev Niels Engelbrecht, who is the church spokesman for all sex abuse cases, told Politiken that cases which have been through the legal system are covered by confidentiality rules.

This latest revelation comes at the same time as two nuns have publicly accused their Mother Superior of letting an elderly senile nun die of exposure in 1993.

In a radio documentary on national broadcaster DR, the nuns from Sostrup Convent in eastern Jutland, said that Mother Theresa Brenninkmeijer, locked the senile nun outside in freezing conditions because she was disturbing their morning prayer.

Once it was discovered that the elderly nun had died, they were forbidden to tell the attendant doctor or the other nuns what had happened.

SIC: TCP