Nearly 4,400 people have been abused by Catholic priests in Italy in cases reported since 2020, a victims’ group alleged on Friday, renewing pressure on bishops to confront a crisis that has long plagued the world’s largest Christian faith.

The unofficial tally by Rete l’Abuso, Italy’s largest church abuse victims’ group, is based on victims’ accounts, judicial sources and cases reported by the media, the founder of the association, Francesco Zanard,i said.

Rete l’Abuso did not say how far back the alleged abuse cases occurred.

The Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), which was criticised by the Vatican’s child protection commission last week, had no comment on the findings, a spokesperson said.

Most allegations concern abuse by priests

The global Catholic Church has been shaken for decades by scandals involving paedophile priests and the cover-up of their crimes, but local church leaders in Italy have been less forthcoming in confronting the issue.

New Pope Leo, who met survivors of sexual abuse by clergy for the first time this week, has told the Church’s newest bishops not to hide misconduct allegations. His predecessor, the late Pope Francis, made addressing the issue a priority of his 12-year papacy, but with mixed results.

In an unusually critical report on the issue published on October 16, the Vatican’s child protection commission said only 81 of Italy’s 226 dioceses responded to a questionnaire about safeguarding practices it had drafted.

Rete l’Abuso said it had documented 1,250 suspected cases of abuse — some with multiple victims — including 1,106 allegedly committed by priests, with the rest attributed to nuns, religion teachers, lay volunteers, educators and scout members.

Its report contained cases related to 4,625 victims — or survivors, as the association calls them — including 4,395 abused by priests.

The report said 4,451 of the survivors were under 18, and an almost equally large number — 4,108 — were male, Rete l’Abuso said, adding that five nuns, 156 vulnerable adults and 11 people with disabilities were also among the victims.

According to the association, out of the 1,106 suspected predator priests, only 76 were subjected to church trials, with 17 temporarily suspended, seven moved to other parishes and 18 were defrocked or resigned from the priesthood. Five died by suicide, it added.

A TikTok video circulating online, featuring a news broadcast, claims to show Punjab’s Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb announcing a complete lockdown on the weekends due to rising smog in Lahore and Multan.

The claim is false. The video is not recent, and no such decision has been made by the Punjab government as of October 24.

Claim

“There will be a complete lockdown in Lahore and Multan next Friday, Saturday and Sunday, says Marriyum Aurangzeb,” read an Urdu-language text overlaid on a video posted on TikTok on October 19.

The video includes a graphic from a private news channel with the text: “All types of construction will be banned as well, said Marriyum Aurangzeb.”

At the time of writing, the post had been viewed over 453,000 times, shared more than 1,160 times, and liked over 9,300 times.

A similar claim was also shared on the same platform here.

Fact

The video circulating online is from last year, and the Punjab government has not recently announced a lockdown in Lahore or Multan due to poor air quality.

Geo Fact Check traced the viral video to a press conference by Minister Aurangzeb, aired on November 15, 2024, when she announced a three-day lockdown in Lahore and Multan due to the intense smog.

Furthermore, Punjab Information Minister Azma Zahid Bokhari told Geo Fact Check over the phone: “There is absolutely no possibility of any lockdown and no decision has been made about it [as yet].”

Verdict: The lockdown announcement from November 2024 has been falsely shared as a recent lockdown announcement in Lahore and Multan.

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King Charles is reportedly ‘very disappointed’ that his brother Prince Andrew affair is totally overshadowing his major historical visit to Vatican.

King Charles on Thursday became the first head of the Church of England to pray publicly with a pope since the schism with Rome 500 years ago, in a service led by Leo XIV.

The monarch and his wife, Queen Camilla, joined the US-born pope in the Sistine Chapel for a 30-minute service mixing Catholic and Anglican traditions.

It was the first time a reigning English or British monarch has prayed publicly with a pope since king Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.

King Charles, who is officially supreme governor of the Anglican mother church, earlier had his first meeting with Pope Leo, who took over as head of the world´s 1.4 billion Catholics in May following the death of Pope Francis.

The pope led the Sistine Chapel service with the archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, currently the senior cleric of the Church of England, while Charles and Camilla sat next to them.

King Charles and Camilla arrived in Vatican nearly a week after Prince Andrew announced to relinquish royal titles.

According to the Fox News Digital, commenting on it, royal expert Ian Pelham Turner said, “Obviously, King Charles is very disappointed that the Andrew affair is totally overshadowing this major historical event, and it was thought he might face questions from the media, but I think that is very unlikely now as all the media are interested in his thoughts on Andrew.”