Catholic Church sexual abuse cases

There have been rules of the church how to deal with cases of abuse. Despite this, many of these cases have long been ignored by the church. Since the 1990s, media attention about the subject has increased. Many victims came forward and reported cases of abuse. Some cases happened  decades earlier.  Most likely, many cases are not reported at all. 

In the last few years, there had been scandals involving sexual abuse in Ireland, the United States, and other countries.

 Who are the victims? 
A study that looked at cases of sexual abuse in the church in the United States, between 1950 and the early 2000s found that 81% of the victims were male.John Jay College of Criminal Justice: The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States 1950–2002, Februar 2004 (PDF; 2,2 MB). Two years later,  the same team published another report, with more detailed findings.John Jay College of Criminal Justice: The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States 1950–2002, 2006 Supplementary Report (PDF; 1,1 MB).

The abused are mostly boys but some are girls, some as young as three years old; most are 11 to 14 years old.Reverend Oliver O'Grady later confessed to the abuse of many other children. The documentary Deliver Us from Evil explored his story and the cover-up by Diocesan officials.Bush R. & Wardell H.S. 1900, Stoke Industrial School, Nelson (Report of Royal Commission On, Together With Correspondence, Evidence and Appendix) Government Printer; Wellington, 8.  The accusations of abuse and cover-ups began to receive public attention during the late 1980s.Ulrich L. Lehner, Mönche und Nonnen im Klosterkerker: ein verdrängtes Kapitel Kirchengeschichte. Kevelaer: Verl.-Gemeinschaft Topos Plus, 2015. Shorter English version under the title: Monastic Prisons and Torture Chambers (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock 2014) Cases have also been brought against members of the Catholic hierarchy who covered up sex abuse allegations and moved abusive priests to other parishes, where abuse continued.

 Media coverage 
By the 1990s, the cases began to receive a lot of media and public attention in countries such as Canada, United States, Chile, Australia and Ireland, and in much of Europe and South America.MOORE, Chris, Betrayal of Trust: The Father Brendan Smyth Affair and the Catholic Church; Marino 1995, ; the producer's book about the programme's content In 2002, an investigation by The Boston Globe led to widespread media coverage of the issue in the United States. Widespread abuse has been exposed in Europe, Australia, Chile, and the United States, reflecting worldwide patterns of long-term abuse as well as the Church hierarchy's pattern of regularly covering up reports of abuse.* In Ireland, a 2009 report (Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse) covered cases during a span of six decades (from the 1950s), noting "endemic" sexual abuse in Catholic boys' institutions, with church leaders aware of the abuse, and government inspectors failing to "stop beatings, rapes and humiliation".()
 In Australia, according to Broken Rites, a support and advocacy group for church-related sex abuse victims,  there were over one hundred cases in which Catholic priests were charged for child sex offenses.()() A 2012 police report detailed 40 suicide deaths directly related to abuse by Catholic clergy in the state of Victoria.()
 Of the Catholic sexual abuse cases in Latin America, the most famous is arguably of the sexual scandal of Father Marcial Maciel, the leader of the Legion of Christ, a Roman Catholic congregation of pontifical right made up of priests and seminarians studying for the priesthood.() This occurred after the Legion spent more than a decade denying allegations and criticizing the victims who claimed abuse.()
 In Tanzania, Father Kit Cunningham, together with three other priests, was exposed as a pedophile after his death.


 )() The abuse took place in the 1960s but was not revealed until 2011, largely through a BBC documentary.







 How the Church deals with the problem 
From 2001 to 2010, the Holy See examined sex abuse cases involving about 3,000 priests, some of which dated back fifty years. Diocesan officials and academics knowledgeable about the Catholic Church say that sexual abuse by clergy is generally not discussed, and therefore difficult to measure. Members of the Church's hierarchy have argued that media coverage was excessive and disproportionate, and that such abuse also takes place in other religions and institutions.  This annoyed critics who saw it as a device to avoid resolving the abuse problem within the Church.

In a 2001 apology, John Paul II called sexual abuse within the Church "a profound contradiction of the teaching and witness of Jesus Christ".Pope sends first e-mail apology; BBC; 23 November 2001 Benedict XVI apologised, met with victims, and spoke of his "shame" at the evil of abuse, calling for perpetrators to be brought to justice, and denouncing mishandling by church authorities.Pope Deeply Sorry for Child Abuse; www.abc.net.au; 19 July 2008Pope's Apology: 'You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry'; The Telegraph; 20 March 2010 In January 2018, referring to a particular case in Chile, Pope Francis accused victims of fabricating allegations;Pope Francis accuses Chilean church sexual abuse victims of slander, The Guardian, 19 January 2018 by April, he was apologizing for his "tragic error",Pope admits 'grave error,' apologizes for not believing Chilean sex abuse victims Washington Post, 12 April 2018 and by August was expressing "shame and sorrow" for the tragic history.NPR, Pope Francis Expresses 'Shame And Sorrow' Over Pennsylvania Abuse Allegations, 16 August 2018 He convened a four-day summit meeting with the participation of the presidents of all the episcopal conferences of the world, which was held in Vatican City from 21 to 24 February 2019, to discuss preventing sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy. In December 2019, Pope Francis made sweeping changes that allow for greater transparency. In June 2021, a team of U.N. special rapporteurs for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized the Vatican, pointing to persistent allegations that the Catholic Church had obstructed and failed to cooperate with domestic judicial proceedings in order to prevent accountability for abusers and compensation for victims.In a letter to the Holy See sent in April 2021, the U.N. special rapporteurs expressed "utmost concern about the numerous allegations around the world of sexual abuse and violence committed by members of the Catholic Church against children, and about the measures adopted by the Catholic Church to protect alleged abusers, cover up crimes, obstruct accountability of alleged abusers, and evade reparations due to victims", noting "the persistent allegations of obstruction and lack of cooperation by the Catholic Church with domestic legal proceedings to prevent accountability of perpetrators and reparations to victims". They also highlighted "the concordats and other agreements negotiated by the Holy See with States that limit the ability of civil authorities to question, compel the production of documents, or prosecute people associated with the Catholic Church". ()

 Criticism 
Some Christian media and institutions have criticized the reporting media for anti-Catholic bias. A report issued by Christian Ministry Resources in 2002 said that contrary to popular opinion, there are more allegations of child sexual abuse in Protestant congregations than Catholic ones, and that sexual violence is most often committed by volunteers rather than by priests themselves. The report also criticized the way the media reported sexual crimes, stating that the Australian media reported on sexual abuse allegations against Catholic clergy but ignored such allegations against Protestant churches. Stephen Joseph Rossetti, a Catholic priest, reported that the frequency of pedophilia amongst the Catholic clergy is no higher than among general population, and a Catholic priest is no more likely to be a pedophile than an average male.

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 References 

Category:Roman Catholicism
Category:Sexual abuse