Msgr. Bernard prince is being tried in Canada on numerous charges of child molestation. The Ottawa Citizen is covering the trial.

 

Msgr. Prince, who is Polish, was a close friend of John Paul II

 and was highly placed in the Vatican and in the Canadian Church:

 

His career included posts at the Vatican as the secretary general of the Pontifical Work for the Propagation of Faith until his retirement more than three years ago. He had lived in Italy since 1991.

He had also worked at parishes in Arnprior and Pembroke before he took a posting at the Apostolic Nunciature in Ottawa.

He later worked at the Canadian Conference of Bishops in Ottawa and taught at Saint Paul University on Main Street before moving to Toronto as director of Canada‘s Pontifical Mission Society.

As I discovered in researching my book, several abusers were in charge of the mission societies in their dioceses. I am not sure it is a pattern or coincidence, but mission work provides an ideal environment for abuse. An abuser has international contacts and can be quickly transferred to mission work anywhere in the world. If he abuses in a mission country, the local police are unlikely to come after him.Msgr. Prince’s high position in the Vatican, like Archbishop Weakland’s, may help explain why the Vatican for many years showed little enthusiasm for disciplining abusers.

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