Church’s ‘inaction continues to damage children’: US abuse victim sues Vatican in bid to identify predators
The Catholic church has been gripped by a global sexual abuse scandal with allegations that cases were covered up by top officials
A US man who says he was raped by a priest as a child announced on Thursday he was suing the Vatican, seeking the identification of accused clergy members worldwide.
Over recent months, the Catholic church has been gripped by a global sexual abuse scandal – particularly in Australia, Chile and the US – with allegations that cases were covered up by top church officials.
“I’m seeking the truth – that’s what this is all about,” 52-year-old Manuel Vega, who said he suffered five years of abuse by southern California parish priest Fidencio Silva-Flores when he was a choir boy, told a press conference in Los Angeles.
“You have to get the images in your head what these priests did to us. And the Catholic church has done nothing … the inaction continues to damage children,” he added.
Vega was one of around 500 victims of sexual abuse or rape who in 2007 agreed with the archdiocese of Los Angeles, the biggest in the US, to a landmark $660 million settlement.