Nobel figure quits after Swedish body's #MeToo scandal

Digital Journal – AFP, by Gaël BRANCHEREAU (AFP)

Swedish scholar Sara Danius stepped down Tuesday from the academy that
awards the Nobel literature prize, almost a year after she quit as its permanent
secretary amid a sex scandal unveiled by the #MeToo movement.

The academic's resignation is the latest development in an affair that sprang from the movement to highlight sexual abuse, and forced the Academy to postpone awarding the literature prize in 2018.

"I have decided to give up my seat... once occupied by the first woman elected to the Academy, Selma Lagerloef," Danius, 56, said in a statement.

"It has been an honour," she added, without giving a reason for her decision.

In April 2018, Danius was forced to step down as the Academy's permanent secretary, the first woman to hold that position, owing to a scandal sparked by Jean-Claude Arnault, an influential figure on Stockholm's cultural scene.

He was convicted of raping a young woman in October and December 2011, and the academy was caught up in the affair because Arnault was married to one of its members, Katarina Frostenson, who has also resigned.

Arnault, who is French, was accused by 18 women in a statement to respected Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, but has appealed his conviction to Sweden's Supreme Court.

The Swedish Academy had generously funded Arnault's Forum club, which was popular among aspiring young authors hoping to make contact with publishers and writers, and he had boasted he was its "19th member."

Danius, a scholar at Stockholm University, joined the Academy in 2013 and became its permanent secretary two years later.

Former Swedish Academy permanent secretary Sara Danius never flinched from
the controversial choice of Bob Dylan for the Nobel Prize in Literature - Jonathan
NACKSTRAND, AFP

As such she was the voice of the body that awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Belarussian journalist Svetlana Alexievitch, US songwriter Bob Dylan and British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro.

Her departure highlights a rift in the Academy between those who seek to revive it and an ageing male-dominated clique alleged to sustain a culture of silence that had protected Arnault.

It might paradoxically open the door to more female members, as permanent secretary Anders Olsson said Tuesday that three vacant seats would likely be filled by women.

"It is necessary for the Academy's balance of men and women," said Olsson, who is leaving himself because he has reached his position's age limit of 70 years.

Madelaine Levy, a critic at the daily Svenska Dagbladet agreed, telling AFP: "There is a problem of male/female balance, but also one of the member's advanced age," which she said was an average of 73 years.

With Danius however, the Academy was "losing its most popular member, and one of those best known by the public," Levy noted.

The impassioned intellectual is also known for her sense of fashion that brightened up often austere galas in the Scandinavian capital.

Top pope aide Cardinal Pell convicted of child sex crimes

Yahoo – AFP, February 26, 2019

Supporters of abuse survivors yelled 'monster' as Cardinal George Pell left the
court (AFP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Australian Cardinal George Pell, one of Pope Francis' closest advisors, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two choirboys, becoming the most senior Catholic cleric ever convicted of child sex crimes.

An Australian jury unanimously found Pell guilty in December on one count of sexual abuse and four counts of indecent assault against two boys at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in the 1990s.

Pell, now aged 77, was accused of cornering the boys -- then aged 12 and 13 -- in the cathedral's sacristy following Sunday mass and forcing them to perform a sex act on him.

The cleric, who has remained free on bail, denied all the charges and an initial trial ended with a hung jury in September, but he was convicted on retrial on December 11.

A wide-ranging suppression order from the presiding judge had prevented the media from reporting even the existence of court proceedings and the ensuing trials since May.

The order was lifted during a court hearing on Tuesday when prosecutors decided against proceeding with a second trial for separate allegations against Pell dating from the 1970s.

There was no immediate reaction from the Vatican but Pell maintained his innocence Tuesday.

"Cardinal George Pell has always maintained his innocence and continues to do so," said a statement issued by his lawyers, who added that they had lodged an appeal against the conviction.

The statement noted that numerous allegations and other charges against Pell had already been withdrawn or discharged.

'Rot in hell'

Of the two choirboys that Pell was found to have assaulted, one died in 2014 of a drug overdose that his family blamed on the trauma he suffered.

The second victim said in a statement issued by his lawyer Tuesday that the ongoing legal process was stressful and "not over yet".

Australian police officers escort Cardinal George Pell from court (AFP Photo/Asanka

Brendon Ratnayake)

"Like many survivors I have experienced shame, loneliness, depression and struggle," said the man, who has not been publicly identified.

"At some point we realise that we trusted someone we should have feared and we fear those genuine relationships that we should trust."

Outside the County Court of Victoria, supporters of other abuse survivors yelled "monster" and "rot in hell" as Pell, walking slowly with the aid of a cane, entered a car after the hearing concluded.

"It is a miracle. It is unbelievable," one child sex abuse survivor who only gave his name as Michael told reporters outside the court, adding that he wanted to see the cleric excommunicated from the Church and sent to jail.

A pre-sentencing hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, when Pell is expected to be remanded in custody. He faces a maximum 25 years in prison if his appeal is rejected, prosecutors have said.

Pell sat impassively during Tuesday's court hearing, wearing a beige sport coat over a dark shirt and clerical collar.

His conviction is another hammer blow to the Church, which has struggled to convince the world it is serious about tackling widespread child abuse and paedophilia.

Pell was appointed by Pope Francis to manage the Vatican finances in 2014 and was one of the pontiff's closest advisors as a member of the so-called C9 council until being dropped from that body the day after his December 11 conviction.

News of his conviction will be a serious setback as the pope pursues a campaign to show the church's determination to fight sex abuse.

Just two days earlier, Pope Francis closed an historic Vatican summit on sexual abuse by priests by likening the abuse to "human sacrifice".

"We are dealing with abominable crimes that must be erased from the face of the earth," Francis said in closing remarks to the summit, vowing to deal with every case of abuse "with the utmost seriousness".

But critics say the institution is still moving too slowly in dealing with a problem that is global in scale and, at a minimum, spans decades.

Supporters of abuse survivors yelled 'monster' as Cardinal George Pell left the 

court (AFP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Gag order

Pell's case has caused consternation in Australia, where he had once been praised by luminaries from a prime minister down, and was a leading conservative voice on issues ranging from gay marriage to climate change.

For decades, Pell denied being an abuser or covering up sex abuse, but he did admit he "mucked up" in dealing with paedophile priests in the state of Victoria.

During his trial, defence lawyers ridiculed the charges against him, arguing that the cathedral sacristy was a hive of activity following Sunday mass and that it would have been impossible to assault choirboys in such circumstances.

Australia's media has strongly protested the gag order imposed on the case, which forbade them from even mentioning the existence of the trial or the order itself.

Following Pell's December conviction, some international media reported the verdict, while local newspapers published front-page stories informing readers that a prominent Australian had been found guilty of serious crimes, but they were not allowed to reveal what or who.

Australian media said Tuesday that they subsequently received "show cause" letters from the court explaining why they should not face contempt charges for their reporting on the case.

Around one in five Australians are Catholic, roughly five million people.

A five-year royal commission inquiry into child abuse said in a report issued last year that tens of thousands of children had been sexually abused in Australian churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups and schools in a "national tragedy" over many generations.

Before Pell, the most high-profile case in Australia concerning sex abuse in the Church was the conviction earlier last year of the former archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, on charges of concealing crimes by a paedophile priest in the 1970s.

Wilson successfully appealed that conviction in early December.

VIDEO: A court has found Australian Cardinal George Pell guilty on one count of sexual abuse and four counts of indecent assault of two boys at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in the 1990s pic.twitter.com/mETDprs7Ti

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 26, 2019

Related Articles:

Vatican defrocks former US cardinal for sex abuse of minor

VIDEO: Following a historic summit in the Vatican on the fight against paedophilia, civil society wants to ensure that the Catholic Church really implements its resolutions pic.twitter.com/DKrNFZ6qZ4

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 26, 2019

Swiss bank UBS fined 3.7 bn euros in French tax fraud case

Yahoo – AFP, 20 February 2019

A Paris court fined Swiss banking giant UBS 3.7 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in a
tax fraud case, a record for such a case in France

A Paris court on Wednesday fined Swiss banking giant UBS 3.7 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in a tax fraud case, a record for such a case in France.

The bank was convicted of illegally helping French clients to hide billions of euros from French tax authorities.

The trial opened last autumn after seven years of investigations, launched when former employees came forward with claims of unlawful conduct.

This came as authorities across Europe cracked down on tax evasion and dubious banking practices in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.

In the UBS case, French authorities determined that more than 10 billion euros had been kept from the eyes of their tax officials between 2004 and 2012.

The fine was in keeping with that demanded by the National Financial Prosecutor's office.

UBS's French subsidiary was also fined 15 million euros for complicity.

Bernie Sanders, from gadfly to serious White House contender

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine Triomphe with Chris Lefkow in Washington, 19 February 2019

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is making another run at the White House

Once dismissed by many as a fringe candidate with wacky socialist ideas, Bernie Sanders campaigned to the brink of the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and has now set his sights on the White House once again.

Sanders, a 77-year-old US Senator from Vermont, announced on Tuesday that he will join an already crowded field of candidates seeking to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020.

"I wanted to let the people of the state of Vermont know about this first," Sanders said on Vermont Public Radio.

He called Trump a national embarrassment and a pathological liar.

"I also think he is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, somebody who is gaining cheap political points by trying to pick on minorities, often undocumented immigrants," Sanders said.

Like Trump, Sanders was an outsider when the 2016 presidential primaries began, little known to the public at large and initially not given much of a chance against the Hillary Clinton machine.

But he came close to pulling off the upset and ended up winning 23 primaries or caucuses against the better-funded Clinton.

Sanders galvanized a broad coalition with his anti-Wall Street rhetoric and talk of a "political revolution."

Though the oldest candidate in the field, Sanders garnered passionate support among young liberals with his calls for universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and free public university education.

He made the fight against income inequality, which he has called the greatest moral, economic and political issue of our times, the centerpiece of his insurgent campaign.

Four years later, Sanders' policies remain the same but much has changed on the political landscape.

Trump won the election and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a young congresswoman from New York, is a rising Democratic star, embracing many of the positions held by Sanders.

"We have had more success in ideologically changing the party than I would have dreamed possible," Sanders said in an interview with GQ magazine. "The world has changed."

From Brooklyn to Senate

Bernard Sanders was born on September 8, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland.

He attended Brooklyn College and later the University of Chicago, where he was active in the civil rights movement, attending the 1963 "March on Washington" where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.

After graduating, Sanders worked on an Israeli kibbutz and moved to Vermont, where he worked as a carpenter and filmmaker.

In 1981, he was elected mayor of Burlington, the state's largest city, by a mere 10-vote margin and went on to win another three terms.

He served as mayor until 1989, winning election as an independent to the US House of Representatives in 1990.

Sanders served in the House until 2006, when he was elected to the US Senate. He was re-elected in 2012 and 2018.

While Sanders remains popular among many Democrats, some in the party are questioning whether their champion this time around should be a septuagenarian white man.

Multiple women have already joined the race, including Kamala Harris, an African-American senator from California, seen as the early front-runner.

Some #MeToo movement activists have also come out against a Sanders candidacy after several employees on his 2016 campaign complained of sexual harassment by staffers.

Sanders has issued an apology "to the women on my 2016 campaign who were harassed or mistreated."

"We can't just talk about ending sexism and discrimination," he said. "It must be a reality in our daily lives."

Famously short-tempered and irascible, Sanders also still displays the energy of a much younger man -- he campaigned tirelessly for Democratic candidates in the 2018 mid-terms.

Sanders claims that he does not have a burning desire to occupy the White House and that the priority is defeating Trump.

"If there's somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I'll work my ass off to elect him or her," he told New York magazine.

Sanders lives in Burlington with his second wife, Jane. Together, they have four children and seven grandchildren.

Spanish victims of sex abuse priests speak out

Yahoo – AFP, 18 February 2019

As scandals erupted in countries like the United States, Ireland or Australia, complaints
 in Spain were few and far between despite the Church's loss of influence over the
years, particularly with younger generations

A trickle of accusations of sexual abuse against priests in schools and seminaries is starting to erode the wall of silence in Catholic Spain, whose Church representatives are set to attend a major Vatican meeting on child protection.

"This is only the tip of the iceberg," warned Miguel Hurtado, who recently made his case public.

"They're not ready for the tsunami that is coming," the 36-year-old said defiantly.

For 20 years, Hurtado stayed quiet, trying to come to terms with the abuse he suffered when he joined a boy scout troup at the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, which sits high up in jagged mountains northwest of Barcelona.

His alleged abuser, whom Hurtado accuses of fondling him for a year, was a charismatic monk who founded the group and died in 2008.

"I would have reported it earlier but I was a kid and I was too scared," said Hurtado, who revealed his accusations in a Netflix documentary on abuse in Spain's Church.

"The secret was killing me and I needed to come out with the truth, whether people believed me or not."

Since then, nine others have come out to allege they were victims of the same monk and fresh accusations have emerged in religious schools in the Basque Country, various Catalan parishes and in a college in Barcelona.

Even the football world was affected.

On Thursday, Atletico Madrid said it had parted ways with a former monk who once trained its young players after he acknowledged having sexually abused one of his students in the 1970s.

'Discouragement'

The heads of around 100 bishops' conferences from every continent will convene from Thursday to Sunday for the Vatican meeting on the protection of minors.

"There is a chain-reaction... It's easy to imagine that there is a lot hidden that has not yet come out," says Josep Maria Tamarit, a professor in criminal law at the Catalonia Open University who is leading an investigation into the issue.

As scandals erupted in countries like the United States, Ireland or Australia, complaints in Spain were few and far between despite the Church's loss of influence over the years, particularly with younger generations.

Hurtado believes this was down to how Spaniards deal with trauma in general.

"For example, we have dealt with the traumas of the (1936-9) civil war and the (ensuing) dictatorship via omission," he says.

"Forgiving and forgetting as it's part of the past. Leaving it all hidden."

Many allegations that are proved have also either gone past the time limit in which legal proceedings can be initiated or the accused have died, says Tamarit.

"There is a lot of discouragement," he adds.

In 2016, one of Spain's biggest paedophile scandals erupted at schools run by the Marist Roman Catholic community in Barcelona.

Most of the 43 complaints made against 12 teachers were shelved.

Just two teachers ended up facing charges, one of whom was sentenced and the other is awaiting trial.

It's a similar situation in Italy, another Catholic country criticised by a recent United Nations report for "the numerous cases of children having been sexually abused by religious personnel... and the low number of investigations and criminal prosecutions".

Tamarit links this to a certain Catholic mentality which sees all sexual acts as sins and therefore "there is not much difference between any old impure act and abuse of a minor".

"This meant it wasn't made visible and there was no awareness of its importance and seriousness."

Silence 'has to stop'

In Spain though, the recent scandals have pushed the Spanish Church into action.

In October, it announced the creation of a commission to rework its protocol on abuse after being accused of covering up cases by the El Pais daily.

"There has been a kind of silence and the Church has taken part in this silence, which was also a part of society," says Norbert Miracle, spokesman for the bishops' conference in Catalonia and neighbouring Valencia and Andorra.

"But that has to stop."

The justice ministry has also asked prosecutors and religious authorities for a report on all cases of abuse.

In December, it unveiled a new draft bill for child protection that wants the time frame within which legal proceedings can be initiated to start when the victim turns 30 rather than 18 as is the case now, giving victims more time to make their complaints.

But Infancia Robada (Stolen Childhood), the first such victims association created in January, is asking for this time frame to start when the victim turns 50.

"In most recent cases, this time frame wouldn't have been of any use," says founder Juan Cuatrecasas.

Vatican defrocks former US cardinal for sex abuse of minor

Yahoo – AFP, February 16, 2019

American Theodore McCarrick, 88, who resigned from the Vatican's College of
 Cardinals in July, is the first cardinal ever to be defrocked for sex abuse (AFP
Photo/Johannes EISELE)

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis has defrocked a former cardinal in a first for the Roman Catholic church over accusations American Theodore McCarrick sexually abused a teenager 50 years ago, a Vatican statement said Saturday.

McCarrick, 88, who resigned from the Vatican's College of Cardinals in July, is the first cardinal ever to be defrocked for sex abuse.

He was found guilty in January by a Vatican court for sexually abusing a teenager, a decision confirmed by the pope in February, with "no further recourse", according to the statement.

It said McCarrick was guilty of "sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power".

The announcement marks a spectacular fall from grace for the once influential cardinal and comes ahead of a Vatican conference from February 21-24 bringing together bishops from around the world to discuss protecting children within the Church.

Sex abuse scandals around the globe, and most recently in the United States and Chile, have shaken the church, with Pope Francis promising a policy of "zero tolerance" even for high-ranking church members.

McCarrick, former archbishop emeritus of Washington, was barred from practising as a priest in July last year, after which he resigned his honorary title of cardinal. He currently lives in Kansas.

Sex with adult seminarians

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops reacted swiftly, saying the decision "is a clear signal that abuse will not be tolerated".

"No bishop, no matter how influential, is above the law of the Church," Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the bishops conference, said in a statement which also called for all victims of abuse to contact the police.

SNAP, a group representing survivors of abuse by priests, suggested Saturday that the McCarrick decision had been "'fast-tracked' by the hierarchy" in the days before the Vatican abuse conference "because it's so damning".

Pope Francis has promised a policy of "zero tolerance" even for high-ranking

church members (AFP Photo/Tiziana FABI)

The group called on Catholic officials to practise the transparency they have promised, and said in a statement that criminal charges should be filed not just against McCarrick but "against Church officials who hid his wrongdoing for decades".

McCarrick was known for having sex with adult seminarians before he was accused of sexually abusing at least one teenager.

Prosecutors in the US state of Pennsylvania last year found 300 priests were involved in child sexual abuse since the 1940s, crimes that were covered up by a string of bishops.

Prosecutors in half a dozen other US states have announced plans for similar investigations.

The pope accepted the resignations of several bishops in Chile last year after investigations revealed decades of sexual abuse by clergy in their dioceses.

In March 2015, Pope Francis allowed Keith O'Brien to keep the title of cardinal after the former bishop of Edinburgh and former leader of the Catholic church in Scotland resigned over allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour towards priests in the 1980s.

The only previous case of a cardinal resigning came in 1927, when Pope Pius XI accepted the resignation of French cardinal Louis Billot, who had himself renounced his status for political reasons.

Cardinals act as close papal advisors and, if aged below 80, can attend conclaves to elect new pontiffs.

McCarrick had been one of the most prominent American cardinals active on the international stage.

Although officially retired, McCarrick had continued to travel abroad regularly, including on human rights issues.

McCarrick was ordained a priest in 1958 and rose through the ranks in the Archdiocese of New York before being installed as archbishop of Washington in 2001, a post he held until 2006.

The claims against him were made public in June by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the current archbishop of New York.

Dolan said an independent forensic agency "thoroughly investigated" the allegation.

A review board that included jurists, law enforcement experts, parents, psychologists, a priest and a religious sister then "found the allegations credible and substantiated," and the Vatican ordered McCarrick to stop exercising his ministry.

Questions remain over Theodore McCarrick, including how he rose so high within 

the Church despite suspicions about his behaviour (AFP Photo/CHIP SOMODEVILLA)

At the time, he released a statement maintaining his innocence but added that he had "fully cooperated" in the investigation.

Senior US church officials said they had received three allegations of McCarrick's sexual misconduct with adults decades ago, two of which resulted in settlements.

The US Catholic website Crux quoted a man as accusing him of abuse in New York's St Patrick's Cathedral in the 1970s, when the accuser was 16 years old.

Other cardinals caught up in scandal include Australia's top Catholic George Pell, number three in the Vatican. Pell faces prosecution in Australia for historical child sexual offences, which he has denied.

Defrocking is the most severe ecclesiastical punishment for a priest, who is reduced to the status of a lay person and no longer allowed to lead mass.

Call for pope to resign

Questions nevertheless remain over McCarrick, including how he rose so high within the Church despite suspicions about his behaviour.

Retired Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has accused Pope Francis of having ignored sexual assault accusations against McCarrick for five years.

Vigano, who is backed by an ultra-conservative US church faction, in August called for the pope to resign over his alleged silence.

Francis subsequently promised a fresh investigation into McCarrick, including using Vatican archives.

McCarrick could yet face civil suits in the US.

Pope Francis meets with leaders from the US church at the Vatican on Thursday

to discuss claims of sexual abuse by clergy (AFP Photo/Handout)

Related Articles:

Pope says Church can no longer tolerate silence on abuse

Pope meets with US church leaders over clergy sex abuse

US cardinals defend themselves over cover-up storm

Pennsylvania report lists more than 300 'predator' priests

US cardinal caught up in abuse scandal resigns

Sex abuse claims rock Dutch Catholic Church

Pope accepts resignation of 3 Chilean bishops in sex abuse scandal

Australian archbishop gets 12 months for concealing child abuse
Germany's Catholic Church 'ashamed' by child sex abuse 

Part of the painting, said to one of the highlights of the Vatican collection

Jesus and Joseph, UK, May 27, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There it a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness. 

US Southern Baptist churches embroiled in sex abuse scandal

Yahoo – AFP, Nova SAFO, February 12, 2019

After the sex abuse scandals that roiled the Catholic Church, the largest Protestant
denomination in the US -- the Southern Baptist Convention - faces allegations
 that hundreds of sexual predators in its ranks preyed on more than 700 people,
many of them children (AFP Photo/SEBASTIEN BOZON)

Chicago (AFP) - The United States' largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, is facing a sexual abuse crisis after a bombshell report revealed hundreds of predators and more than 700 victims since 1998.

The report by two Texas newspapers found some 380 church leaders and volunteers have faced public accusations of abuse, mostly of children as young as three years old.

Some of the accused continued to work at Southern Baptist churches, the newspapers said.

In response to the report, church officials acknowledged the number of victims could actually be higher and urged survivors to come forward.

"One of the things I'm encouraged by are the number of pastors that are actively engaged right now," in the report's aftermath, convention leader Russell Moore told AFP on Tuesday.

The revelations threatened to engulf the denomination -- with some 47,000 churches and 15 million members mostly in the southern US -- in the same type of scandal that has roiled the Catholic Church.

A more comprehensive response was likely to come from the Southern Baptist organization next week when president JD Greear "is scheduled to give an update on a sexual abuse study he commissioned last summer," said spokesman Roger Oldham.

Lax oversight

Unlike the Vatican, the Southern Baptist Convention is a loose network of churches allowed to run autonomously, ordain their own ministers -- who are not required to be celibate -- and hire staff and volunteers based on each church's own standards.

The decentralized system, which lacks a shared database of personnel records, has been rife for exploitation by sexual abusers, according to the investigative report first published over the weekend by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News.

Lax oversight allowed some abusers with criminal convictions -- even registered sex offenders -- to continue working at Southern Baptist churches, according to the report, which found 220 offenders who were convicted or took plea deals.

"In the denomination, each congregation governs its own affairs. There are no bishops. There are no supervisors," Moore said.

"But churches can decide with whom they fellowship," he said. "No one can use church autonomy as an excuse."

In at least 35 cases, abusers were able to leave one church and find work in another over the last two decades. In some cases, congregations knew about the past abuse.

For example, Illinois pastor Leslie Mason was convicted in 2003 on two counts of sexual assault. After being released from prison, he went on to lead a different church nearby.

'Changes are coming'

Florida pastor Darrell Gilyard, released from prison in 2011 after a criminal sex abuse conviction involving two girls, returned to preach services which children could not attend, because a court order required him to stay away from minors.

Moore said some Southern Baptists held erroneous views of forgiveness that "assumes these predators should be simply given a second chance."

In other instances, he said, churches believed horrific crimes could not occur within their ministries.

Moore also acknowledged that the Southern Baptist Convention rejected a proposal in 2007 that it should establish a registry to track abuse claims and prevent predators from getting rehired by other churches.

The newspapers found hundreds of abuse cases in the years since. And past church leaders have been accused of concealing or mishandling complaints.

"As a denomination, now is a time to mourn and repent. Changes are coming. They must," said Greear, the convention's current president, on Twitter.

The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP), an organization mostly focused on the Catholic Church's abuse scandal, urged Southern Baptist survivors to report crimes to law enforcement.

"It is critical that law enforcement officials at every level of government look into these cases," the organization said in a statement.

Failure by Catholic Church officials to take action on sexual abuse allegations involving minors has been an urgent crisis hitting Roman Catholicism globally in recent years.

Pope Francis last week admitted that priests and bishops also had sexually abused nuns.