International
After abuse scandal report, French church in confession row
AFP
A row broke out on Thursday in France between the government and a leader of the Catholic church over whether confessions of child abuse made to priests should be reported to the police.
Following the publication of a report this week that estimated that Catholic clergy had abused 216,000 children since 1950, the government summoned Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort for talks about the role of confession on Thursday.
Moulins-Beaufort had angered victims’ families on Wednesday by saying that priests were not obliged to report sexual abuse if they heard about it during an act of confession, a Catholic ritual used to admit to sins.
“The secrecy of confession is a requirement and will remain a requirement. In a way, it is above the laws of the Republic. It creates a free space for speaking before God,” Moulins-Beaufort, the head of the Bishops’ Conference of France, told Franceinfo.
His words were in line with new Vatican guidelines, released last year on handling clerical child abuse cases, which state that any crime discovered during confession is subject to “the strictest bond of the sacramental seal”.
But in France, victims’ advocates pointed out that French law recognises professional confidentiality for priests, but it does not apply in potentially criminal cases involving violence or sexual assault against minors.
“Nothing is above the laws of the Republic,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Thursday in response.
Moulins-Beaufort has been summoned to appear before Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin early next week “to explain his comments”, the minister’s office said.
President Emmanuel Macron, who has criticised ultra-conservative Muslims in the past for trying to subvert French law, asked Darmanin to hold the meeting, according to Attal.
In a fresh statement on Thursday, Moulins-Beaufort claimed that that confession “had always been respected by the republic”.
– Shame –
The publication on Tuesday of a landmark report on sex abuse in the French Catholic church led Moulins-Beaufort to express his “shame and horror”, while Pope Francis expressed “great pain”.
The investigating commission’s two-and-a-half-year inquiry and 2,500-page report concluded that sex abuse by priests had been a “massive phenomenon” that was covered up by a “veil of silence.”
The report found that the “vast majority” of victims were pre-adolescent boys from a variety of social backgrounds. Their abusers were mainly priests, bishops, deacons and monks.
The commission recommended a series of measures to protect minors from predatory clergy, which included priests informing prosecutors of any child abuse they hear mentioned during an act of confession.
“We need to find another way of doing this,” Moulins-Beaufort told Franceinfo during his interview on Wednesday.
The Catholic Church, which forbids priests from marrying, has been repeatedly rocked by child sex abuse scandals over the last three decades, particularly in Australia, the United States, Ireland and Germany.
International
Tensions Escalate in Middle East as U.S. Bombs Iran After Maritime Attacks
The United States launched new strikes against Iran on Wednesday, following President Donald Trump’s warning that Washington would “hit hard” against the Islamic Republic. While Trump ordered the retaliation after attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, he also said he hoped the latest wave of bombings would end soon and left the door open for renewed negotiations.
U.S. forces “have begun carrying out additional strikes against Iran to further reduce its ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” the United States Central Command said in a post on X.
Washington blamed Iran for what it described as “recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping.”
Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that explosions were heard in the port cities of Bandar Abbas, Konarak, and Chabahar.
“This is in retaliation for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will be much worse,” Trump wrote on social media alongside an image showing what appeared to be a bombing at an Iranian location.
Before ordering the strikes, the U.S. president said that the ceasefire with Iran had ended. Mediators Pakistan and Qatar called for de-escalation, while the United Nations also urged both sides to reduce tensions.
The Strait of Hormuz remains a critical flashpoint in the Middle East conflict, which began in late February after U.S. and Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran-linked attacks on at least three vessels in recent days triggered a U.S. offensive against Iranian targets on Tuesday. Tehran responded by launching attacks against Gulf countries that are allies of Washington.
International
Deadly Drug Trade Rivalry Suspected After Eight Bodies Discovered in Southern Mexico
Eight bodies were found Wednesday along a highway in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala, in an incident authorities believe may be linked to a dispute over local drug sales.
The victims — six men and two women — were found abandoned on a road in a mountainous area of the municipality of El Bosque, according to the state prosecutor’s office in a statement published on Facebook.
Initial investigations indicate that the killings may be connected to “a dispute over retail drug sales between local criminal groups operating in the region,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Local media reports that several criminal incidents have increased in the area since the beginning of the year.
The road where the bodies were discovered is located in a mountainous region largely inhabited by Indigenous communities. Authorities have not released further details about the victims or possible suspects as the investigation continues.
Central America
Regional Naval Operations Strike Drug Cartels, Disrupting Cocaine and Weapons Trafficking Routes
Transnational operations carried out by regional naval forces, including El Salvador’s National Navy, the United States Coast Guard, and Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy (SEMAR), have dealt significant blows to international drug trafficking organizations.
The operations have not only led to the seizure of massive cocaine shipments, such as the 6.68 metric tons of cocaine valued at approximately $167 million presented last Wednesday by El Salvador’s Security Cabinet, but have also resulted in the confiscation of high-powered weapons allegedly intended as payment to criminal organizations, according to Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro.
“Based on the strength of the data, not just the narratives, we can state that our National Navy has documented the only known operation in the Pacific Ocean in which a criminal organization from the south was transporting drugs and exchanging them with a group from the north for firearms,” Villatoro said.
The exchange of weapons for drugs between criminal groups in the Pacific Ocean represents a logistical method in which South American cartels from countries such as Colombia and Ecuador negotiate with Mexican and Central American organizations to trade military-grade weapons for cocaine shipments.
Regional naval authorities have identified that meeting points located farther from the coastline in international waters make it easier for armed groups to receive supplies and carry out exchanges undetected. As a result, El Salvador’s National Navy deploys teams from the Trident Naval Task Force (FTNT) aboard maritime patrol vessels to intercept these operations.
Initially, the patrol units are ordered to travel up to 200 nautical miles offshore, but later receive instructions from the Maritime Operations Center to extend their missions beyond 1,000 nautical miles, reaching coordinates used by drug trafficking vessels operating in the open sea.
“We cannot lose focus on the routes these criminal organizations use to move drugs,” Minister Villatoro said, emphasizing the importance of maintaining surveillance over the various maritime corridors used for narcotics trafficking.
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