HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police said on Wednesday they were investigating two more allegations of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests as charges of paedophilia continue to haunt the Church across the world.
The two fresh allegations came after police opened a hotline last week following recent accusations that six priests had sexually abused as many as eight children over the past 30 years.
"We received the (two) allegations on our 24-hour hotline and we are following up on them," a police spokesman said, declining to give further details.
The chancellor of the Hong Kong Catholic diocese told Reuters last week the Church had conducted internal investigations into two abuse cases involving priests -- finding both guilty -- but never reported them to police.
One priest was suspended from public ministry, underwent therapy and was later reassigned to Australia; the other was defrocked, the chancellor said.
The other cases came to light earlier this month through media reports.
The allegations in Hong Kong come as U.S. Church officials grapple with scandals in Boston, Los Angeles, Houston and Philadelphia. Australia's Catholic Church has also been dealing with charges that some of its parish priests sexually abused children.
The Philippine Church publicly apologised last week for the sins of the priests in its fold.
The Hong Kong Church, for years a strong and vocal champion of rights in this former British colony, is under strong public pressure to explain why it never reported the cases to police.
It has denied any cover up and said it had kept silent because the families of the victims asked it to.