Portugal’s Catholic Church rocked again by child sex abuse allegations

Almost every week allegations of child sex abuse within Portugal’s Catholic Church deepen. This weekend, focus is on D. José Ornelas, Bishop of Leiria-Fátima and president of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference, who is reportedly being investigated by the Public Ministry over suspicions that he helped ‘cover up’ alleged pedophilia involving two Italian priests at an orphanage in Mozambique in 2011. As reports today explain: “this is the third case in little more than two months exploding within the heart of the Portuguese Catholic Church”. It comes in the context that a commission set up to investigate child sex abuse in the Church has received hundreds of witness statements, from which a number of active inquiries have been instigated.