Archbishop calls for sex abuse priests to go

‘Halo of Catholic priesthood broken’

The Catholic Archbishop of Johannesburg, Buti Tlhagale has proposed that priests who abuse children should be automatically excommunicated from the church. Speaking at the ordination of four new Catholic priests in Johannesburg at the weekend, Tlhagale said considering the moral gravity of abuse of minors by priests, the church should consider expanding the list of acts prompting automatic excommunication. “There is palpable outrage against the Catholic Church hierarchy for its complicity, its silence and its cover-ups – for siding and hiding perpetrators at the expense of victims. “The halo of the Catholic priesthood has been broken.” Pope Francis defrocked two Chilean bishops earlier this month over sex abuse claims. The local church was earlier this month rocked by explosive claims of child abuse in the 1980s perpetrated by a retired priest now living in a nursing home in the UK. Limpopo resident William Segodisho revealed how he had allegedly been abused while living at a street shelter for children in Hillbrow‚ Johannesburg. He claimed the church had covered up the abuse when he tried to report it. The archbishop also spoke out against corruption in SA. “Defrauding the state, greed, self-enrichment, corruption, state capture, the collapse of Steinhoff and VBS – these ills point out that there is something fundamentally wrong in the state of South Africa.”