Catholic Church sexual abuse cases

Theodore McCarrick (born 1930), ordered in 2018 by Pope Francis to a life of prayer and penance.[1] Found guilty of sexual crimes against adults and minors and abuse of power, he was dismissed from the clergy in February 2019.[2] He is the most senior church official in modern times to be laicized and is the first cardinal laicized for sexual misconduct.
Pope Francis making a speech in the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (2018). The Catholic Church in Chile in 2018 suffered one of the worst of the worldwide Catholic sexual abuse cases, including the Fernando Karadima case, resulting in several convictions and resignations.

There have been many cases of sexual abuse of children by priests, nuns, and other members of religious life in the Catholic Church. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the cases have involved many allegations, investigations, trials, convictions, acknowledgement and apologies by Church authorities, and revelations about decades of instances of abuse and attempts by Church officials to cover them up.[3] The abused include mostly boys but also girls, some as young as three years old, with the majority between the ages of 11 and 14.[4][5][6][7] Criminal cases for the most part do not cover sexual harassment of adults. The accusations of abuse and cover-ups began to receive public attention during the late 1980s.[8] Many of these cases allege decades of abuse, frequently made by adults or older youths years after the abuse occurred. 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.[9][10]

By the 1990s, the cases began to receive significant media and public attention in several countries, including in Canada, United States, Chile, Australia, Ireland, and much of Europe and South America.[11][12][13] Pope John Paul II was criticised by representatives of the victims of clergy sexual abuse for failing to respond quickly enough to the Catholic sex abuse crisis.[14] After decades of inaction, Sinéad O'Connor brought the scandal to a head when she tore up a photo of John Paul II on a 1992 episode of Saturday Night Live. The protest drew praise from critics of the church but also the ire of many Catholics, which greatly damaged her career and had a strong possibility of putting her life in danger. Her protest would see increased positive reappraisal as corruption and suppression efforts by the church related to abuse became more popularly known.

In 2002, an investigation by The Boston Globe, which later inspired the film Spotlight, led to widespread media coverage of the issue in the United States. Widespread abuse has also been exposed in Europe, Australia, and Chile, reflecting worldwide patterns of long-term abuse as well as the Church hierarchy's pattern of regularly covering up reports of abuse.[note 1]

From 2001 to 2010, the Holy See examined sex abuse cases involving about 3,000 priests, some of which dated back fifty years.[15] Diocesan officials and academics knowledgeable about the Catholic Church say that sexual abuse by clergy is generally not discussed, and thus is difficult to measure.[16] 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, a stance that dismayed representatives from other religions who saw it as a device to distance the Church from controversy.[17]

In a 2001 apology, John Paul II called sexual abuse within the Church "a profound contradiction of the teaching and witness of Jesus Christ".[18] 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.[19][20] In January 2018, referring to a particular case in Chile, Pope Francis accused victims of fabricating allegations;[21] by April, he was apologizing for his "tragic error",[22] and by August was expressing "shame and sorrow" for the tragic history.[23] 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.[24] In December 2019, Pope Francis made sweeping changes that allow for greater transparency.[25][26] In June 2021, a team of U.N. special rapporteurs for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) 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.[27]

Some Christian media and institutions have alleged an anti-Catholic bias by the reporting media. A report issued by Christian Ministry Resources (CMR) in 2002 stated 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.[28] 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.[29] 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.[30]

  1. ^ US prelate McCarrick resigns from College of Cardinals (AP)
  2. ^ "Comunicato della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede, 16.02.2019" (Press release). Holy See Press Office. 16 February 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  3. ^ Tara Isabella Burton, New Catholic sex abuse allegations show how long justice can take in a 16-year scandal, Vox, 20 August 2018
  4. ^ "Hundreds of priests shuffled worldwide, despite abuse allegations". USA Today. Associated Press. 20 June 2004.
  5. ^ Stephens, Scott (27 May 2011). "Catholic sexual abuse study greeted with incurious contempt". ABC Religion and Ethics. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  6. ^ Lattin, Don (17 July 1998). "$30 Million Awarded to Men Molested by 'Family Priest' / 3 bishops accused of Stockton coverup". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 23 July 2012. Attorney Jeff Anderson said the Howard brothers were repeatedly molested between 1978 and 1991, from age 3 to 13.
    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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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)
  9. ^ Bruni, Frank (2002). A Gospel of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse, and the Catholic Church. HarperCollins. ISBN 0060522321.
  10. ^ "Sex abuse victim accuses Catholic church of fraud". USA Today. 29 June 2010. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
  11. ^ MOORE, Chris, Betrayal of Trust: The Father Brendan Smyth Affair and the Catholic Church; Marino 1995, ISBN 1-86023-027-X; the producer's book about the programme's content
  12. ^ "The Pope Meets the Press: Media Coverage of the Clergy Abuse Scandal". Pew Research Center. 11 June 2010. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
  13. ^ William Wan (11 June 2010). "Study looks at media coverage of Catholic sex abuse scandal". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 14 June 2010. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
  14. ^ Radio, Southern California Public (24 April 2014). "Clergy sex abuse victims decry sainthood for Pope John Paul II". scpr.org.
  15. ^ Lewis, Aidan (4 May 2010). "Looking behind the Catholic sex abuse scandal". BBC News. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  16. ^ Paulson, Michael (8 April 2002). "World doesn't share US view of scandal: Clergy sexual abuse reaches far, receives an uneven focus". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 22 February 2003. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  17. ^ Butt, Riazat; Asthana, Anushka (28 September 2009). "Sex abuse rife in other religions, says Vatican". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 10 October 2009.
  18. ^ Pope sends first e-mail apology; BBC; 23 November 2001
  19. ^ Pope Deeply Sorry for Child Abuse; www.abc.net.au; 19 July 2008
  20. ^ Pope's Apology: 'You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry'; The Telegraph; 20 March 2010
  21. ^ Pope Francis accuses Chilean church sexual abuse victims of slander, The Guardian, 19 January 2018
  22. ^ Pope admits 'grave error,' apologizes for not believing Chilean sex abuse victims Washington Post, 12 April 2018
  23. ^ NPR, Pope Francis Expresses 'Shame And Sorrow' Over Pennsylvania Abuse Allegations, 16 August 2018
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference ncr-announce was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ "Pope ends 'secrecy' rule on child sexual abuse in Catholic church". The Guardian. 17 December 2019 – via www.theguardian.com.
  26. ^ Delia Gallagher (17 December 2019). "Pope lifts secrecy rules for sex abuse cases". CNN.
  27. ^ 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". ("UN experts urge Catholic Church to act against sexual abuse, provide reparations". www.ohchr.org. Geneva: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 21 June 2021. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2021.)
  28. ^ Clayton, Mark (2002). "Sex abuse spans spectrum of churches". The Christian Science Monitor.
  29. ^ Henderson, Gerard (2017). "Gerard Henderson: The media, the Commission and the Church". Catholic Weekly.
  30. ^ Plante, Thomas; Daniels, Courtney (2004). "The sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church: What psychologists and counselors should know" (PDF). Santa Clara University. pp. 4–10. Retrieved 2 October 2022.


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