Australian bishop arrested
February 21, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: Bishop Christopher Saunders, the focus of sex-abuse investigations by both the Vatican and Australian prosecutors, was taken into custody by police on February 21.
Australian officials had closed an investigation of Bishop Saunders in 2021, citing a lack of evidence of criminal activity. But a subsequent Vatican inquiry, conducted under the terms of Vos Estis, produced a lengthy report of alleged abuses. When Australian officials requested and received a copy of that report, they renewed their inquiry, and in January and again in February raided his residence and questioned him.
Bishop Saunders resigned from the leadership of the Broome diocese in 2021, citing ill health. Following the Vos Estis investigation he was ordered by the Vatican to leave the diocese, but he did not.
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