A former bishop in Australia named Christopher Saunders has been accused of doing very bad things.
He’s been charged with rape and other sexual crimes, including some involving children.
The police in Western Australia and even the Pope have been looking into these accusations.
They arrested Mr. Saunders in Broome, where he lives, after finding out about the terrible things he’s accused of doing.
Mr. Saunders, who is 74 years old, says he didn’t do these things, but he’s been refused bail, which means he can’t leave jail before going to court.
He’ll have to appear in court soon.
This is a big deal because Mr. Saunders is one of the important people in the Catholic Church in Australia, and it’s rare for someone like him to be accused of these kinds of crimes.
He’s accused of doing these terrible things in different places in Western Australia between 2008 and 2014.
Apart from one other important person in the Catholic Church who was accused of similar things and went to jail but got out later, Mr. Saunders is the most important Catholic official in Australia to be accused of hurting children.
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, which is like a group of important Catholic leaders, said they’ll help the police with their investigation.
They’re very upset about these accusations.
Another important Catholic leader, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, said it’s important to check into these accusations very carefully.
Mr. Saunders has been a bishop since 1996, and he’s worked mostly in the Kimberley region, a remote area in the northwest part of Australia.
He’s known for being social, doing good work in the community, and taking young men on trips.
He’s been accused of these kinds of things before, especially by some Indigenous people, but nothing happened after the police looked into it the first time.
He stepped down from his job in 2020 but still has the title of bishop.
Recently, the Pope ordered a special investigation to look into these accusations, and that’s why the police started looking into it again.
There have only been a few investigations like this in the whole world. They’re called “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” and they’re meant to find out if important people in the Catholic Church have done bad things like this.
In Australia, there’s been a lot of talk about this issue because of a big investigation in 2017 that found out many institutions, including the Catholic Church, didn’t do enough to help the people who were hurt.
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