This page documents
Catholic Church sexual abuse cases
There have been many cases of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, nuns, Popes and other members of religious life. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the cases have involved many allegations, investigations, trials, convictions, a ...
by country.
Catholic sexual abuse cases in Europe
The Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Europe has affected several dioceses in European nations. Italy is an exceptional case as the 1929 Lateran Treaty gave the Vatican legal autonomy from Italy, giving the clergy recourse to Vatican rather than It ...
have been documented by cases in several dioceses in European nations. Investigation and widespread reporting of sexual abuse scandals were conducted in the early 21st century related to numerous
dioceses in the United States of America; several American dioceses have filed for bankruptcy after settling civil lawsuits from victims. A significant number of cases have also been reported in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
,
Australia,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and countries in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
In 2001, lawsuits were filed in the United States and Ireland, alleging that some priests had sexually abused minors and that their superiors had conspired to conceal and otherwise abet their criminal misconduct.
[Bruni, p. 336.] In 2004, the ''
John Jay Report
''The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States'', commonly known as the ''John Jay Report'', is a 2004 report by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, commissioned by the U.S ...
'' tabulated a total of 4,392 priests and deacons in the U.S. against whom allegations of sexual abuse had been made. The numbers of reported abuse allegations and court cases has increased worldwide since then.
The
U.N.
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
Committee on the Rights of the Child
The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a body of experts that monitor and report on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Committee also monitors the Convention's three optional protoc ...
has asked for detailed information on the full extent of child abuse worldwide by priests,
monks and nuns. It has also asked how the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...
prevents abusers from contacting additional children and how the Holy See ensures that known crimes against children are reported to the police. In the past there were issues over the Church hierarchy failing to report abuse to law enforcement and allowing abusers further contact with children. 1 November 2013 was set as a deadline for receiving the information. In June 2021, a team of
U.N. special rapporteurs for the
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...
have criticized the Vatican referring 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". ()]
Prevalence
In a statement read by Archbishop
Silvano Maria Tomasi
Silvano Maria Tomasi C.S. (born 12 October 1940) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as the Special Delegate to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta since 1 November 2020. He was the Permanent Observer of the Holy See ...
in September 2009, the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...
stated, "We know now that in the last 50 years somewhere between 1.5% and 5% of the Catholic clergy has been involved in sexual abuse cases", adding that this figure was comparable to that of other groups and denominations.
A 2010 article in ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'' magazine reported that the figure for abuse of children by adults in the Catholic Church was similar to that in the general adult population.
''A Perspective on Clergy Sexual Abuse'' by Dr.
Thomas Plante, of the Catholic
Santa Clara University and volunteer clinical associate professor at
Stanford University, states that "approximately 4% of priests during the past half century (and mostly in the 1960s and 1970s) have had a sexual experience with a minor", which "is consistent with male clergy from other religious traditions and is significantly lower than the general adult male population which may double these numbers".
Plante's article was based on a study done by
John Jay College
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal arts ...
. It was compiled solely from data provided by leaders of
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which paid John Jay College to do the study.
After widespread publicity about the abuse, in 2013
Barbara Blaine
Barbara Ann Blaine (July 6, 1956 – September 24, 2017) was the founder in 1988 and president until February 2017 of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a national advocacy group in the United States for survivors of clergy, ...
, of the
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, established in 1989, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization support group of survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their supporters in the United States. Barbara Blaine, a survivor o ...
(SNAP), stated, "We are confident that the ICC will see sufficient evidence that high ranking Catholic officials are still knowingly enabling predators to harm and endanger children across the world, while concealing these heinous crimes even more effectively." A group had filed charges in the
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals f ...
(ICC) against the Catholic Church for what it said was crimes against humanity because of its policy on this issue.
The ICC refused to investigate. SNAP representatives note that most Catholics are found in the
Third World
The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...
, where child molestation is more easily concealed. They argued that it was necessary to guard against "the tempting assumption that the worst of this scandal is somehow behind us."
Africa
Kenya
In 2009 several people accused an Italian priest working in the country of sexual molestation. The Church assured them it was investigating the case, but that did not appear to happen. Kenyan police said they found no evidence and believed Sesana is innocent.
In 2010 a young Kenyan woman alleged that a Catholic priest had raped her, but the police and Church authorities had failed to follow up the allegations.
The 2011
Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) documentary ''A Mission To Prey'' publicised Kenya's clerical abuse cases, saying they should have been handled with more transparency. It was discovered that this program mistakenly alleged that
Fr. Kevin Reynolds was an abuser, causing him to be removed from his home and his parish ministry. RTÉ has subsequently apologised for this programme. It has stated that Reynolds was innocent of the charges stated. RTÉ has allowed continued access to this programme online, while upwards of 32 slander and libel cases are pending in reaction by alleged abusers.
[Irish TV Network Defames Innocent Priest, Issues Apology](_blank)
, ''The Media Report'', November 2011, accessed 23 November 2011.
In 2011 a Dutch bishop in Kenya was reported to be under probe over alleged sex abuse. He was alleged to have abused a minor 18 years before while serving as a priest in Ngong diocese. He was retired by the church.
Mauritius
Henry Coombes revealed how he was sexually assaulted at the age of 11 in the late 1950s by a catholic priest from Ireland who was posted at Saint Joseph's College in
Curepipe
Curepipe () also known as ''La Ville-Lumière'' (The City of Light), is a town in Mauritius, located in the Plaines Wilhems District, the eastern part also lies in the Moka District. The town is administered by the Municipal Council of Curepipe ...
.
In September 2016 Teddy Labour, a 37-year old catholic priest, was arrested following complaints made to church officials Hériberto Cabrera and Jean-Maurice Labour by a 20-year old church goer. She had attended
St. Louis Cathedral, Port-Louis where the priest kissed and molested her.
In October 2019 catholic priest Joseph-Marie Moctee was sentenced to 3 years in jail for molesting a 15-year old teenager at ''Cure de St Anne'', a catholic church located at
Chamarel
Chamarel is a village in Mauritius located in Rivière Noire District, the eastern part of the village also lies in the Savanne District. The village is administered by the Chamarel Village Council under the aegis of the Rivière Noire District C ...
in April 2015. Joseph-Marie Moctee had convinced the teenager and his friend to have dinner with him and to stay overnight at the church.
Tanzania
;St Michael's Catholic Boarding School, Soni, Tanzania
Fr Kit Cunningham
Christopher Basil Cunningham IC, MBECunningham returned his MBE insignia to Buckingham Palace shortly before his death but was not formally removed from membership of the Order of the British Empire. (18 November 1931 – 12 December 2010) w ...
, a prominent United Kingdom member of the
Rosminian order, and three other priests, were exposed as paedophiles after Cunningham's death.
While at Soni, Cunningham pommitted sexual abuse that made the school, according to one pupil, "a loveless, violent and sad hellhole". Other pupils recall being photographed naked, hauled out of bed at night to have their genitals fondled, and other sexual abuse.
Although known about by the
Rosminians
The Rosminians, officially named the Institute of Charity ( la, Institutum Caritatis), abbreviated I.C., are a Roman Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men founded by Antonio Rosmini and first organised in 1828.
The ...
before Cunningham's death in 2010, the abuse was not reported by the media until 2011.
Formal action was launched by a group of former pupils who filed a civil suit at the civil court in Leicester, UK on 20 March 2013.
;Settlement
The audited financial statements for the year ending 5 April 2015 report under the heading "Legal and safeguarding related costs" that "Last year’s report referred to legal claims which had been brought against the Charity concerning the welfare of children between approximately 1940 and 1985. A settlement has now been reached in relation to these claims." The Charity was liable also for the claimants' legal fees. The matter has had a significant impact on the Charity's finances with payment of their legal and settlement costs amounting to a total GBP 1,746,523 for the year.
Asia
East Timor
* In November 2018, the Vatican defrocked American priest Richard Daschbach after the church found him guilty of sexual abuse of girls in the shelter he had established. In September 2020 East Timor's public prosecutor charged Daschbach with 14 counts of sexual abuse, pornographic material and domestic violence. On 22 February 2021 the trial against Daschbach started in East Timor.
Japan
* In 2002 and 2012, at least five damage reports had been filed over clergy sexual abuse.
Philippines
* In 2002 the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
apologized for sexual abuses, including adultery, homosexuality and child abuse by 200 priests over the previous 20 years.
* In 2003 at least 34 priests were suspended in a sex abuse scandal involving sexual harassment of women. Twenty men were from a single diocese.
* In 2011, a priest accused of sexually abusing a 17-year-old female minor was sheltered by his bishop, despite calls for his surrender to civil authorities.
* In 2017, a priest was arrested in Marikina for attempting to have sex with a 13-year-old girl.
India
* In 2002, Mathew N. Schmalz noted that
Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in India
There have been many cases of child sexual abuse, sexual abuse of children by Priesthood in the Catholic Church, Catholic priests, nuns, List of popes, Popes and Sexual abuse scandals in Catholic orders and societies, other members of Cons ...
are generally not spoken about openly, stating "you would have gossip and rumors, but it never reaches the level of formal charges or controversies."
* In 2014, Raju Kokkan, the vicar of the Saint Paul's Church in
Thaikkattussery
Thaikkattussery is a residential area situated in the City of Thrissur in Kerala state of India. Thaikkattussery is Ward 30 of Thrissur Municipal Corporation.
References
See also
*Thrissur
Thrissur (), formerly Trichur, also known by its ...
,
Thrissur
Thrissur (), formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi and Kozhikode, and t ...
,
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
, was arrested on charges of raping a nine-year-old girl. According to
Kerala Police
The Kerala Police is the law enforcement agency for the Indian state of Kerala. Kerala Police has its headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital. The motto of the force is "Mridhu Bhave Dhrida Kruthye" which means "Soft in Temperamen ...
, Kokkan had raped the child on several different occasions, including at least thrice in his office during the month of April. Kokkan promised to gift the child expensive vestments for her
Holy Communion ceremony before sexually assaulting her. The abuse was revealed after the victim informed her parents that she had been raped by Kokkan on 25 April 2014. The priest subsequently fled to
Nagercoil
Nagercoil, also spelt as Nagarkovil ("Temple of the Nāgas", or Nagaraja-Temple), is a city and the administrative headquarters of Kanyakumari District in Tamil Nadu state, India. Situated close to the tip of the Indian peninsula, it lies on an ...
in the neighbouring state of
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...
, and was arrested by police on 5 May. Following the arrest, the Thrissur Archdiocese stated that the vicar had been removed from his position within the Church. Between February and April 2014, three other Catholic priests were arrested in the state of Kerala on charges of raping minors.
* In 2016, the Catholic Church reappointed a convicted and jailed priest in the Ootacamund Diocese in Tamil Nadu, with little regard for victims rights and children's safety.
* In 2017, Father Robin or Mathew Vadakkancheril of St Sebastian church in Kannur was arrested in Kochi on the charge of repeatedly raping a 15-year-old girl who later gave birth to a child. The baby is reported to have been taken to an orphanage without the mother's consent. In 2019, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Thalassery POSCO court.
* In 2018, after much public outcry, Bishop
Franco Mulakkal
Franco Mulakkal is an Indian prelate of the Latin Catholic Church. He worked as the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar from 2013 until his arrest in 2018 on charges of raping a nun. He is the first bishop in Indian Catholic to ...
was arrested on 21 September by the Kerala Police. The Holy See had just 'temporarily' relieved him from his pastoral responsibilities. The nun who complained against Bishop Franco had mentioned to the police that he had repeatedly had unnatural sex with her on multiple occasions between 2014 and 2016.
Indonesia
* From 2002 to 2020, 20 altar boys were abused by Syahril Parlindungan Marbun.
Europe
Austria
;Archdiocese of Vienna
In 1995
Hans Hermann Cardinal Groer stepped down as head of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in Austria following accusations of
sexual misconduct
Sexual misconduct is misconduct of a sexual nature which exists on a spectrum that may include a broad range of sexual behaviors considered unwelcome. This includes conduct considered inappropriate on an individual or societal basis of morality, se ...
. In 1998 he left the country and lost the duties of a Cardinal. Nevertheless, he still retained the title of a Cardinal.
;Kremsmuenster Abbey
In March 2010, several monks were suspended at Kremsmunster Abbey, located in the Upper Austria city of Kremsmunster, for severe allegations of sexual abuse and physical violence. The reported incidences ranged over a period from the 1970s until the late 1990s and had been subject to police investigation. In July 2013 an Austrian court found Kremsmuenster Abbey director Alfons Mandorfer guilty in 24 documented cases of child abuse and sexual violence.
[''Defrocked priest guilty of sexually abusing boys'']
USA Today, 3 July 2013 The now
laicized
In the canon law of the Catholic Church, the loss of clerical state (commonly referred to as laicization, dismissal, defrocking, and degradation) is the removal of a bishop, priest, or deacon from the status of being a member of the clergy.
The t ...
priest, who was accused of committing "sexual acts of differing intensity" on the pupils between 1973 and 1993, was sentenced to twelve years in prison.
By 2013, the school had paid approximately €700,000 in compensation.
Belgium
There have been several abuse cases in Belgium.
;Diocese of Antwerp
Former parish priest
Bruno Vos
Bruno may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname
* Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880)
* Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne, ...
of
Nieuwmoer parish in
Kalmthout
Kalmthout () is a municipality in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the villages of Kalmthout, Achterbroek, Heide, and Nieuwmoer. In 2021, Kalmthout had a population of 19,020. The total area is .
In addition to Kalmth ...
was officially charged with rape of a minor by the Belgian judiciary. He was also alleged to possess child pornography.
Croatia
;Archdiocese of Zagreb
*
Ivan Čuček was convicted in 2000 of sexual abuse of 37 young girls, and sentenced to three years in prison. This term was later reduced by the
Supreme Court to one-and-a-half years.
;Archdiocese of Rijeka
*
Drago Ljubičić, a Catholic priest on the isle of
Rab
Rab âːb( dlm, Arba, la, Arba, it, Arbe, german: Arbey) is an island in the northern Dalmatia region in Croatia, located just off the northern Croatian coast in the Adriatic Sea.
The island is long, has an area of and 9,328 inhabitants (2 ...
, was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for molesting five teenage boys. He will be the first Catholic priest in Croatia to serve prison time for
sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...
. When asked by Catholic press agency Glas Koncila (prior to scandal) why children avoid going to church, he blamed the 'strong influence of communism on island Rab'.
;Archdiocese of Zadar
*
Nediljko Ivanov, former vicar of
Bibinje
Bibinje (, it, Argimbusi, la, Vibiana) is a village and a municipality in southern Croatia, situated southeast from Zadar, between the Adriatic tourist road and the sea, having a four-kilometer coastline with beaches and pathways. According to ...
, is the first priest in Croatia which has been convicted for pedophilia by a church court. Ivanov was first suspected in 2012 when four of his victims reported him to the State's Attorney Office for pedophile activities that occurred in the period from 1983 to 1991. Ivanov was not prosecuted in a civilian court due to statute of limitations of legally prescribed 15 years, because cases have been reported in 2012 or six years after the statute of limitations went into power.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible ...
was also informed about the case, but it did not use its authority to remove a pedophile priest from the Church. Church Court ruled that Ivanov can still serve Mass, but was sentenced to fasting, prayer and was ordered to apologize to the victims that he sexually abused. One of the victims stated in 2014 that he finds the judgment satisfactory because everyone know about Ivanov being a pedophile, but he does not consider sentence to be fair. Ivanov lives in a home for retired priests in
Zadar
Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar ser ...
.
France
In February 2019, Pope Francis alluded to the closure of a religious order due to the 'sexual slavery' of the nuns within it.
Some sources identify the congregation he intended as a part of the
Community of St. Jean.
The Holy See's Press Office however claimed that "sexual manipulation had occurred within this women’s religious congregation, not actual sex slavery." On 3 June 2019, the French Catholic Church activated a sex abuse commission—made up of 22 legal professionals, doctors, historians, sociologists and theologians—which will obtain witness statements and deliver its conclusions by the end of 2020. In June 2020, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE), which was established in June 2019, concluded that 3,000 children in France were sexually abused by Catholic clergy and officials since 1950 and that there was an average of 40 victims per year. On 11 November 2020, Jean-Marc Sauve, the head of the independent commission set up by the Catholic Church in France to investigate claims of sex abuse, acknowledged the his commission's sex abuse hotline, which closed on 31 October 2020, received 6,500 calls reporting sex abuse in a period 17 months.
A 2,500-page report was to be published in October 2021; the head of the independent commission investigating child sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church said that about 3,000 paedophiles, as a minimum estimate, had operated in the Church since 1950, with at least 330,000 children sexually abused. Pope Francis said that he was shamed by the church's failure to deal with paedophile priests in France.
Young girls abused by nuns were not an infrequent occurrence, either.
;Seine et Marne
*
Henri Lebras was sentenced to ten years for the rape of a twelve-year-old boy between 1995 and 1998.
Germany
In February 2010, ''Der Spiegel'' reported that more than 94 clerics and laymen have been suspected of sexual abuse since 1995. Thirty had been prosecuted because legal time constraints related to the occurrence of alleged crimes prevented prosecution of older cases. In 2017, it was further reported that at least 547 members of the prestigious Domspatzen choir in Regensburg were physically or sexually abused between 1945 and 1992.
On 25 September 2018, the German Catholic Bishops' Conference released a report (some data of which was leaked via ''Der Spiegel'' several days before its official publication) that reported that 3,677 children in Germany, mostly boys under age 13, were sexually abused by Catholic clergy members over the past seven decades". About 1,670 church workers, or 4.4% of the clergy, had been involved in the abuse which is "shocking and probably just the tip of the iceberg" according to Germany's Federal Justice Minister Katarina Barley.
The report, commissioned by the Bishops' Conference in 2014, was not fully independent of the church and likely understated the activity, as journalists have been forbidden from looking at church files which could contain more reports of abuse.
The full report was officially released by the German Catholic Church on 25 September, and included an apology by Cardinal
Reinhard Marx
Reinhard Marx (born 21 September 1953) is a German cardinal of the Catholic Church. He serves as the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. Pope Benedict XVI elevated Marx to the cardinalate in a consistory in 2010.
Biography
Born in Geseke, N ...
, Bishop of Munich and Freising and head of the German Catholic Bishops' Conference, and other German bishops.
The incidents were reported to have happened between the years 1946 and 2014.
The report's author criticised the Church for denying him access to other Catholic institutions, including children's homes and schools, which could consequently not be included.
It was also reported that local dioceses destroyed some files containing more reports of sex abuse.
Some of the "predator priests" were transferred to other parishes in order to avoid scrutiny.
In August 2020, more than 1,400 people in Germany accused at least 654 monks, nuns and other members of the orders of sexually abusing them as children, teenagers, and as wards, going as far back as the 1950s.
In December 2020, Catholic nuns who ran a former children's home in the German city of Speyer were implicated in transporting children to priests who would then sex abuse them.
A German
Web site has a frequently updated sourced timeline of cases, international but focussed on Germany.
According to a February 2021 report in ''
The Daily Beast
''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008.
It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
'',
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
s from a convent in
Speyer
Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...
rented orphaned boys to German businessmen who forced them to participate in
gang bangs and sex orgies. The nuns later punished the young boys if they were covered in
semen
Semen, also known as seminal fluid, is an organic bodily fluid created to contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize the female ovum. Sem ...
or had wrinkled clothing.
Ireland
In August 2018, a list was published which revealed that over 1,300 Catholic clergy in Ireland had been accused of sexual abuse, with 82 of them getting convicted.
;Archdiocese of Dublin
Several priests convicted of abusing children in the United States were Irish nationals, notably
Patrick Colleary,
Anthony O'Connell
Anthony J. O'Connell (May 10, 1938 – May 4, 2012) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic church. He served as the first of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, Diocese of Knoxville in Tennessee from 1988 to 1998. He later ser ...
and
Oliver O'Grady. One of the most widely known cases of sexual abuse in Ireland involved
Brendan Smyth, who, between 1945 and 1989, sexually abused and
assaulted
An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...
20 children in parishes in
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
, Dublin and the United States.
;Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland
In May 2020, it was revealed that prior to the 2004 merger with the SAI which formed Scouting Ireland,
Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland covered up sex abuse committed by people who served in the organization.
In a period spanning decades, both the CBSI and SAI shielded 275 known or suspected predators who abused children after becoming aware of the reported acts of abuse.
Scouting Ireland backed the findings of the report and issued an apology.
;Diocese of Ferns
The
Ferns Inquiry 2005 – On 22 October 2005 a government-commissioned report compiled by a former Irish Supreme Court judge delivered an indictment of the handling of clerical sex abuse in the Irish
diocese of Ferns.
Italy
* The Italian Government has a treaty with the Vatican that guarantees areas of immunity to Vatican officials, including bishops and priests. This has reportedly made it difficult to get accurate figures as to how many priests and other religious officials are alleged to have committed sexual abuse. In October 2018, however, Italian victim rights group Rete l'Abuso asserting that the Italian justice system has treated about 300 cases of predator priests and nuns and netted 150–170 convictions since the year 2000.
* Three former students claimed in 2010 that they had been abused, and 65 former students signed statements saying that they or other students had been abused by Catholic priests when attending the
Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf ( it, Compagnia di Maria per l'educazione dei sordomuti) is a Catholic school for deaf children in Verona, Italy.
The school was founded in 1830 by a priest, Antonio Provolo.
Catholic sexual abuse scandal
...
, a Catholic school for
deaf
Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
children in
Verona, Italy
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in north ...
. The abuse, reportedly by 24 priests including the late bishop of Verona, is alleged to have occurred from the 1950s to 1980s.
* Former
Roman Rota
The Roman Rota, formally the Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Rota ( la, Tribunal Apostolicum Rotae Romanae), and anciently the Apostolic Court of Audience, is the highest appellate tribunal of the Catholic Church, with respect to both Latin-r ...
judge Msgr. Pietro Armenta was taken into police custody in March 2017.
In February 2018 he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment, suspended.
In Italy the issue of Catholic sexual abuse had been largely buried. Following an investigation which found thousands of perpetrators and hundreds of thousands of victims in France, there were calls for the church to "find the courage to investigate" clerical child abuse in other countries, including specifically Italy.
Hans Zollner, a German priest and adviser to Pope Francis, said "The Catholic church in other countries must now find the same courage as in France. I hope in Italy too. The church is not immaculate, unfortunately it is also made up of sin and crimes."
[
]
Malta
* Eighty-four allegations had been made as of April 2010. Lawrence Grech, one of many alleged victims, complained that he was abused in an orphanage. Grech complained in 2010 that the Church had been investigating cases for seven years without doing enough that is effective. The pope spoke personally to Grech and other victims, praising their courage in coming forward. A Maltese court found that Fr Charles Pulis and Fr Godwin Scerri sexually abused children, and sentenced the two men to six years and five years in prison, respectively. The church officially regretted the delays before investigations; it promised to remove Fr Pulis from the priesthood.
* Fr. Anthony Mercieca, who was accused by former Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
Congressman Mark Foley
Mark Adam Foley (born September 8, 1954) is an American former politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He served from 1995 until 2006, representing the 16th District of Florida as a member of the Republic ...
of molesting him as a teenager and has admitted "inappropriate encounters", now lives in Malta. In year 2020 Fr Donald Bellizzi was sentenced to three years in prison for sexually abusing a teenage boy.
Monaco
On 3 December 2020, William McCandless, a member of the Wilmington, Delaware-based religious order Oblates de St. Francis De Sales who was formerly assigned to DeSales University in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, was charged in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for possession of child pornography. He also served as an adviser to Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
’s royal family, Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956.
Kelly ...
, the late mother of Monaco's leader Prince Albert, was also a native of Philadelphia. Much of McCandless' child pornography was imported from overseas as well. McCandless has been ordered to remain under house arrest until the outcome of his trial.
Netherlands
Since 1995 the church established new procedures to receive reports of sexual abuse. Alleged victims can notify a central church institution, called Secretariaat Rooms-Katholiek Kerkgenootschap (SRRK). The church made this change in response to charges of alleged cases of sexual abuse by religious members of the Roman Catholic Church.
On 14 May 1998 damages of €56,800 were paid by the diocese of Rotterdam to the victim of sexual abuse by a diocesan priest; this was part of a settlement to avoid civil prosecution.
Father J. Ceelen, pastor
A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...
of the parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
es of Lieshout and of Mariahout (municipality of Laarbeek
Laarbeek () is a municipality located in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands. It was formed in 1997 from the former municipalities Beek en Donk, Aarle-Rixtel and Lieshout (which included the village Mariahout). Laarbeek ...
), quit his post after allegations of sexual abuse on 1 September 2005.
In February 2010 Salesian
, image = File:Stemma big.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
, abbreviation = SDB
, formation =
, founder = John Bosco
, founding_location = Valdocco, Turin ...
s were accused of sexual abuse in their juvenate Don Rua in 's-Heerenberg
s-Heerenberg is a city on the Dutch-German border, in the Province of Gelderland, Netherlands. It is located about 5 km north of the German Emmerich, and about south of Doetinchem. It received city rights in 1379.
's-Heerenberg is the loca ...
. Salesian bishop of Rotterdam van Luyn pleaded for a thorough investigation.
In 2011 the Deetman Commission, acting on the 2010 request of the Conference of Bishops
An episcopal conference, sometimes called a conference of bishops, is an official assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church in a given territory. Episcopal conferences have long existed as informal entities. The first assembly of bishops to ...
and the Dutch Religious Conference
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People ...
, reported on its inquiry into abuse cases from 1945 to 2010 affecting children entrusted to the care of the church in the Netherlands.
Norway
Georg Müller, a former Catholic bishop in Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...
, Norway, has admitted to sexually abusing an altar boy in the 1980s when he served as a priest there. Müller, who retired as bishop in 2009, said there were no other victims.
Poland
In 2013 a succession of child sex abuse scandals within the church, and the poor response by the church, became a matter of widespread public concern. The church resisted demands to pay compensation to victims. On 27 September 2018, however, Bishop Romuald Kamiński
Romuald Kamiński (born 7 February 1955, Janówka, Poland) is a Polish Roman Catholic priest who has served as bishop of Warszawa-Praga since 2017. He previously served as the auxiliary bishop of Ełk between 2005 and 2017.
Biography
Kamińs ...
of the Diocese of Warsaw-Praga stated that Polish church leaders were working on a document, to be published later, on priestly sexual abuse of minors in Poland, and ways to prevent it. Cases were being evaluated by Warsaw courts, and the priests involved were banned from working with minors; three were suspended from all pastoral work. According to Archbishop Wojciech Polak
Wojciech Polak (born 19 December 1964) is the Roman Catholic archbishop of Gniezno, Poland, since his appointment on 17 May 2014. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of Gniezno.
Biography Early life
Polak was born in 1964 in Inowrocł ...
, the head of Poland's Catholic Church, the document will include data on the scale of priestly sex abuse in Poland.
On 8 October 2018, a victims group mapped out 255 cases of alleged sex abuse in Poland.
On 11 May 2019, Polak issued an apology on behalf of the entire Catholic Church in Poland. The same day, ''Tell No One
''Tell No One'' (french: Ne le dis à personne) is a 2006 French thriller film directed by Guillaume Canet and based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Harlan Coben. Written by Canet and Philippe Lefebvre and starring François Cluzet, th ...
'', a documentary detailing accounts of sex abuse by Catholic church workers in Poland, went viral, obtaining 8.1 million viewers on YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
by 13 May. The film accused former Polish leader Lech Walesa's personal priest Franciszek Cybula, who is now deceased, of sexual abuse and noted that he transferred between parishes. The film also alleges that Rev. Dariusz Olejniczak, a priest who was sentenced for molesting seven-year-old girls, was allowed to continue working with young people despite his conviction.[The Washington Post]
/ref> On 14 May 2019, Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has long had an alliance with the nation's Catholic Bishops, agreed to increase penalties for child sex abuse by raising the maximum prison sentence from 12 years to 30 years and raising the age of consent from 15 to 16. Prosecutor and PiS lawmaker Stanislaw Piotrowicz, who heads the Polish Parliament's Justice Commission, has also been criticized for playing down the actions of a priest who was convicted for inappropriately touching and kissing young girls.
On 16 May 2020, Polak asked the Vatican to investigate sex abuse claims involving brothers Marek and Tomasz Sekielski. The two brothers released a popular YouTube documentary titled ''Hide and Seek'', which detailed their allegations that they were molested by a Polish Catholic priest. Polak expressed support towards the allegations, stating "The film... shows that protection standards for children and adolescents in the Church were not respected."
;Diocese of Kielce
In ''Tell No One'' a priest known as Father Jan A., who served the Diocese of Kielce in the village of Topola, confessed to molesting a young girl.
;Diocese of Opole
In 2018 the Bishop of Opole, Andrzej Czaja in a letter to the faithful read at all masses in the diocese on Sunday, 7 October, apologized to the victims and admitted that 6 priests from his diocese were found guilty of sexual abuse against minors.
;Archdiocese of Poznań
In March 2002 the Archbishop of Poznań
Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...
, Juliusz Paetz, stepped down following accusations, which he denied, of sexually molesting young priests.
;Diocese of Kalisz
On 25 June 2020, Pope Francis ordered Bishop Edward Janiak
Edward Janiak (14 August 1952 – 23 September 2021) was a Polish prelate of the Catholic Church, who served as the bishop of the Diocese of Kalisz from 2012 to 2020. He was previously an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Wrocław and ti ...
, age 67, to resign from his duties as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kalisz
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Kalisz ( la, Calissien(sis)) is a diocese located in the city of Kalisz in the ecclesiastical province of Poznań in Poland.
History
* 25 March 1992: Established as the Diocese of Kalisz from the Diocese of Częst ...
for protecting priests who committed acts of sex abuse. He appointed Archbishop Grzegorz Ryś of Łódź as apostolic administrator ''sede plena'', which means he has full administrative authority. On 17 October 2020, Pope Francis accepted Janiak's resignation from the diocese.
;Diocese of Płock
In early 2007 allegations surfaced that former bishop Stanislaw Wielgus (later very briefly Archbishop of Warsaw) was aware that several priests in his former diocese of Płock
Płock (pronounced ) is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by GUS on 31 December 2021, there were 116,962 inhabitants in the city. Its full ceremonial name, according to th ...
were sexually abusing minors.
;Diocese of Warsaw-Praga
On 27 September 2018, Warsaw-Praga Bishop Romuald Kamiński
Romuald Kamiński (born 7 February 1955, Janówka, Poland) is a Polish Roman Catholic priest who has served as bishop of Warszawa-Praga since 2017. He previously served as the auxiliary bishop of Ełk between 2005 and 2017.
Biography
Kamińs ...
apologized to those who had been victims of sexual abuse in his Diocese.
;Archdiocese of Gdansk
In 2019, three protestors toppled a statue of Rev. Henryk Jankowski following revelations that he hd sexually abused Barbara Borowiecka when she was a girl. Jankowski was the subject of a criminal investigation in 2004 related to alleged sexual abuse of a boy; the case was dropped. He was defrocked in 2004. He died in 2010 without having been convicted of sex abuse. Lech Walsea's personal chaplain, Rev. Franciszek Cybula, had been accused of sex abuse while serving in the clergy. On 13 August 2020, Pope Francis removed Gdansk Archbishop Slawoj Leszek Glodz, who was among those who covered up abuse committed by Jankowski and Cybula. Glodz had presided over Cybula's funeral. Although Glodz had turned 75, the required age for Catholic bishops to offer their resignation, his removal by Pope Francis was described as "cleaning house". It is highly unusual for the pope to accept such a resignation on a prelate's birthday.
;Archdiocese of Wroclaw
On 6 November 2020, The Holy See's nuncio to Poland announced that following an investigation by the Holy See regarding sex abuse allegations, Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz was now "barred from any kind of celebration or public meeting and from using his episcopal insignia, and is deprived of the right to a cathedral funeral and burial." Gulbinowicz was also ordered to pay an "appropriate sum" to his alleged victims.
Gulbinowicz is the former archbishop of Wroch, whose support of the trade union Solidarity played a critical role in the collapse of communism in Poland. On 16 November 2020, 10 days after the Vatican, Gulbinowicz, but, as a result of the Vatican displinary action, could not have a funeral in Wroclaw's Cathedral of St. John the Baptist or to be buried in the cathedral.
Slovenia
;Archdiocese of Ljubljana
* Franc Frantar – detained in 2006 for sexual abuse of up to 16 minors. He was later sentenced to five years in prison. He initially escaped prosecution by escaping to Malawi
Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeas ...
to work there as a missionary, but returned to Slovenia after an Interpol notice
An Interpol notice is an international alert circulated by Interpol to communicate information about crimes, criminals, and threats by police in a member state (or an authorised international entity) to their counterparts around the world. The in ...
was issued.
* Marko Rupnik – In November 2022, Italian media reports began to appear alleging that Jesuit priest Rupnik had sexually and psychologically abused a number of nuns three decades earlier in the 1990s in a convent in Slovenia when he was their spiritual director. In December 2022, a 58-year-old ex-nun gave an interview to an Italian newspaper, describing several allegations of sexual and psychological abuse committed by Rupnik against her and fellow nuns. The Slovenian Jesuit headquarters and the Vatican acknowledged the case, saying Rupnik had been excommunicated by the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith several years earlier, but the excommunication was lifted after Rupnik repented, and although "partial sanctions" remained in place, the Dicastery stated that the case exceeded the statute of limitations. The Jesuit order and the Vatican made several public statements that several people involved found "contradictory", causing some leading Jesuits to call for a full review of how the Jesuit order and Vatican handled the case. On 3 January 2023, Catholic online newspaper ''The New Daily Compass'' reported that Rupnik had retired from his public positions into a monastery. On 6 January 2023, the Slovenian Jesuit order said in a statement they 'believe in the sincerity of the nuns and other victims who have spoken out about their suffering and other circumstances regarding emotional, sexual and spiritual abuse by our confrere. We sincerely ask for forgiveness from all.' Their testimonies 'show beyond doubt that the competent Church leaders did not take appropriate action, which has increased and prolonged the untold suffering of a number of women'. Reuters called the case "embarrassing" for the Jesuit order, 'but also for Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
, who is a member of the order.'
Sweden
;Diocese of Stockholm
One child was sexually abused by a priest several years in the late 1950s. When the child raised the issue at the time, the priest was protected and the abuse was kept quiet by the church. The victim finally reported the abuse to the Stockholm diocese in December 2005. The victim demanded a public apology from the church. In June 2007 Sweden's Catholic church made a public apology in two newspapers.
United Kingdom
Vatican
Holy See
On 23 June 2018, a Holy See tribunal convicted former diplomat Monsignor Carlo Capella for possessing child pornography while in the Holy See's U.S. nunciature and handed him a five-year prison sentence.
On 9 December 2019, lawyers brought a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Holy See, regarding an alleged cover up of abuse committed by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
Theodore Edgar McCarrick (born July 7, 1930) is a laicized American bishop and former cardinal of the Catholic Church. Ordained a priest in 1958, he became an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1977, then became Bishop of Metuch ...
.
On 19 November 2020, four people who accused McCarrick of sexually abusing them filed a lawsuit against the Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...
in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, saying it had failed in its oversight of McCarrick over whom it exercised complete control as his employer. The Holy See says priests are not its employees and that its status as a foreign sovereign is a defense from such a suit.
Vatican City
On 14 October 2020, the first ever criminal trial held within the Vatican City for sex abuse began, and involves a priest accused of sexually abusing a former St. Pius X youth seminary student between 2007 and 2012 and another for aiding and abetting the abuse. The accused abuser, Rev. Gabriele Martinelli, 28, was a seminarian and has since become a priest. The other defendant is the seminary's 72-year-old former rector Rev. Enrico Radice, who is charged with aiding and abetting the alleged abuse.
North America
Canada
;Archdiocese of St. John's
In the 1990s, criminal proceedings began against members of the Christian Brothers in Newfoundland. In July 2020, Rev. Peter Power was charged with charges of sexual touching, sexual assault and committing an indecent act involving two teenaged boys, aged 18 and 16 years old at a residence in a small Newfoundland community earlier in the year. Though officially retired, Power was still occasionally active in Catholic ministry. The same month, the Court of Appeal of Newfoundland and Labrador
The Court of Appeal of Newfoundland and Labrador is at the top of the hierarchy of courts for the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Court of Appeal derives its powers and jurisdiction from the Court of Appeal Act.
The independe ...
unanimously reversed a 2018 Canadian Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to b ...
ruling and ruled that the Archdiocese of Saint John's was liable for the sexual abuse committed at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in the 1950s and 1960s.
;Basilian Orders
As of August 2020, at least three Canadian Basilian
Basilian may refer to a number of groups who are followers of Saint Basil the Great and specifically to:
* Basilian monks (founded c. 356), monks who follow the rule of Saint Basil the Great, in modern use refers to monks of Eastern Catholic Chur ...
priests, Fathers Robert Whyte, John O'Keefe, and William Hodgson Marshall. have been convicted of committing acts of sex abuse.[ ] In October 2020, an investigation by CityNews
''CityNews'' (corporately styled City''News'') is the title of news and current affairs programming on Rogers Sports & Media's Citytv network in Canada. The newscast division was founded on September 28, 1975 as ''CityPulse'' as a standalone lo ...
found that 14 Basilians in Canada were accused of committing acts of sex abuse.
;Military Ordinariate of Canada
On 7 September 2020, Canadian Armed Forces spokesman Maj. Travis Smyth acknowledged that Capt. Jean El-Dahdouh, a Maronite Church
The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic ''sui iuris'' particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. Th ...
military chaplain found guilty the previous year of assault and sexual assault after a series of incidents at the Nordik Spa-Nature in Chelsea, Quebec
Chelsea is a municipality located immediately north of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, and about north of Ottawa. Chelsea is located within Canada's National Capital Region. It is the seat of Les Collines-de-l'Outaouais Regional County Municipality ...
, was still a member of the Canadian military, but he was expected to soon be released from the armed forces.
On 16 November 2020, documents which the Canadian Forces sought keep sealing for 40 years were public. The documents revealed that Canadian Forces knew that Catholic Chaplain Capt. Angus McRae had victims before his 1980 sex abuse conviction for children to his quarters at an Edmonton military base and gave them alcohol before sexually assaulting them.
;Archdiocese of Montreal
On 25 November 2020, former Quebec Superior Court justice Pepita Capriolo released a report which found that some former officials in the Archdiocese of Montreal took no action against pedophile priest Brian Boucher after receiving reports that he sexually abused boys, stating, among other things, that "The primary culprit is the lack of accountability of the people involved in Boucher's education, training and career. Complaints were 'passed on' and no one took responsibility for acting on them." The Catholic church assigned Capriolo to the investigate the Archdiocese of Montreal after Boucher pled to sex abuse charges in January 2019 and received an eight-year prison sentence. Among the former Archdiocese of Montreal officials named in Capriololo's report as having knowledge of reports of sex abuse against Boucher where Cardinal Marc Ouellet
Marc Armand Ouellet (born 8 June 1944) is a Canadian prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI ...
, once a candidate for the papacy, Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte
Jean-Claude Turcotte () (26 June 1936 – 8 April 2015) was a Canadian Roman Catholic cardinal. Upon his elevation into the cardinalate he was made the Cardinal-Priest of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament and the Holy Canadian Martyrs. He was ...
, now deceased, and Anthony Mancini
Anthony Mancini KGOHS (born November 27, 1945) is a Canadian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the Archbishop of Halifax-Yarmouth. He retired on November 27, 2020.
Biography
Early life
Born in Mignano Monte Lungo, near Napl ...
, the Archbishop of Halifax.
;Archdiocese of Vancouver
In 2019, the Archdiocese of Vancouver publicly named nine clergymen who were criminally convicted of sexual abuse or who had civil lawsuits related to abuse settled against them.[ ] It was also acknowledged that the archdiocese was aware of 36 sex abuse cases since the 1950s, which involved 26 children. The Archdiocese of Vancouver was the first among Canada's 60 Catholic dioceses to make this information public. In August 2020, a new sex abuse lawsuit was filed against the Archdiocese of Vancouver.[ ] The lead plaintiff, identified only by the initials K.S. in the court documents, said the priest in charge of St. Francis of Assisi School, Father Michael Conaghan, sexually assaulted her while she was a student at the school in the 1980s. She was around 11 years old at the time of the alleged abuse. Conaghan, who died four days after the lawsuit was filed, was not among the nine clergy listed by the Archiocese in 2019. The lawsuit also alleges the Archdiocese of Vancouver followed marching orders from the Vatican for years on how to bury allegations of abuse within its parishes. On 14 December 2020, it was revealed the Archdiocese of Vancouver had settled more sex abuse cases involved three additional priests who sexually abuse 13 previously undisclosed victims. The three priests named were also not previously listed on the Archdiocese of Vancouver's credibly accused list.
El Salvador
In November 2015, sex abuse scandals in El Salvador's sole non-military Catholic diocese, the Archdiocese of San Salvador, started coming to light when the archdiocese's third highest-ranking priest Jesus Delgado, who was also the biographer and personal secretary of the Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was dismissed by the archdiocese after its investigation showed that he had molested a girl, now 42 years of age, when she was between the ages of 9 and 17. Due to the statute of limitations, Delgado could not face criminal charges. In December 2016, a canonical court convicted Delgado and two other El Salvador priests, Francisco Galvez and Antonio Molina, of committing acts of sex abuse between the years 1980 and 2000 and laicized
In the canon law of the Catholic Church, the loss of clerical state (commonly referred to as laicization, dismissal, defrocking, and degradation) is the removal of a bishop, priest, or deacon from the status of being a member of the clergy.
The t ...
them from the priesthood. In November 2019, the archdiocese acknowledged sex abuse committed by a priest identified as Leopoldo Sosa Tolentino in 1994 and issued a public apology to his victim. Tolentino was suspended from ministry and began the canonical trial process. It was also reported at this time that another El Salvador priest had been laicized in 2019 after pleading guilty to sex abuse in a Holy See trial and is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in a criminal trial.
Mexico
Fr. Marcial Maciel
Marcial Maciel Degollado (March 10, 1920 – January 30, 2008) was a Mexican Catholic priest who founded the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement. He was general director of the Legion from 1941 to 2005. Throughout most of his car ...
(1920–2008) founded the Legion of Christ
The Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ ( la, Congregatio Legionariorum Christi; abbreviated LC; also Legion of Christ) is a Roman Catholic clerical religious order made up of priests and candidates for the priesthood established by Marcia ...
, a Catholic order of priests originating in Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. Nine former seminarians of his order accused Maciel of molestation. Maciel maintained his innocence of the accusations.
United States
;Archdiocese of Anchorage
In 2007, the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
(which includes priests in the territory of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington) made a $50 million payout to over 100 Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
who alleged that they had been sexually abused as children in Alaska. It was the largest settlement by any province of the Jesuit order. The Society of Jesus priests are an independent religious institute reporting directly to the Pope. The settlement did not require the Jesuit priests to admit to having molested Inuit children. Allegations named 13 or 14 priests who were said to have molested children under their care over a period of 30 years. None of these priests was ever criminally prosecuted for such allegations.[Jesuit Order Settles Suit on Sex Abuse in Alaska](_blank)
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', 19 November 2007
The Diocese of Fairbanks faced separate cases because it owned and managed the churches in which the priests served. The 135 lawsuits filed against the diocese had been reduced to ten by November 2007 and were expected to be mediated and settled. But in 2008 the Diocese filed for Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...
bankruptcy, saying that settlement efforts had failed and it did not have funds to pay the nearly 150 plaintiffs who alleged sexual abuse by priests or church workers from the 1950s to the 1980s.
;Archdiocese of Boston
Allegations of sexual misconduct by priests of the Archdiocese of Boston and, following revelations of a cover-up by the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Francis Law
Bernard Francis Law (November 4, 1931 – December 20, 2017) was an American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, known largely for covering up the serial rape of children by Catholic priests. He served as Archbishop of Boston, archpri ...
, were reported by the ''Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' in numerous articles in 2004. Roman Catholics in other dioceses of the United States began to investigate similar situations. Cardinal Law's actions prompted public scrutiny of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (US ...
and the steps taken in response to past and current allegations of sexual misconduct by priests. The events in the Archdiocese of Boston became a national scandal, as were revelations of cover ups by numerous dioceses across the country.
;Archdiocese of Chicago
Daniel McCormack, a self-confessed sexually abusive priest, was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for abusing five boys (aged 8–12 years) in 2001.
;Diocese of Cleveland
Father Robert McWilliams, 40, was indicted on 1 July 2020 on federal criminal charges: two counts of sex trafficking of a minor, three counts of sexual exploitation of children, one count of transportation of child pornography, one count of receiving and distributing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and one count of possession of child pornography.
; Diocese of Crookston
Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was charged with molesting two teenage girls at a Catholic church in Greenbush, Minnesota
Greenbush is a city in Roseau County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 719 at the 2010 census.
Minnesota State Highways 11 and 32 are two of the main arterial routes in the community.
History
The word Greenbush comes from "Sha ...
, a small rural town near the Canada–United States border. The abuse occurred in 2004. Charges were filed in 2006 and amended in 2007. Without facing legal punishment, Jevapaul returned to his home diocese in Ootacamund
Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and ...
, India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. As of 2010 he was working in the diocesan office. A Roseau County, Minnesota
Roseau County () (pronounced row - so) is a county in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota, along the Canada–US border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,331. Its county seat is Roseau. Roseau County borders the C ...
attorney is seeking to extradite
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdic ...
the priest from India in a criminal case involving one of the girls.
The Archbishop of Madras (now called "Chennai
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
"), India, has asked Jeyapaul to return to the US to face the charges. Jevapaul has said that he will not fight extradition if the US seeks it.
;Diocese of Davenport
On 10 October 2006, the Diocese of Davenport
The Diocese of Davenport ( la, Diœcesis Davenportensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Roman Catholicism in the United States, Catholic Church for the southeastern quarter of the United States, U.S. state of Iowa ...
, Iowa filed for Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...
bankruptcy protection because of settlement claims related to sexual abuse by clergy.
;Archdiocese of Dubuque
In 2006 the archdiocese settled a number of claims of sexual abuse, and the Archbishop offered a personal apology.
;Diocese of Fall River
Father James Porter was a Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
who was convicted of molesting 28 children; He admitted sexually abusing at least 100 of both sexes over a period of 30 years, starting in the 1960s. Bishop Sean O'Malley of the Diocese of Fall River
The Diocese of Fall River ( la, Dioecesis Riverormensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church spanning Barnstable County, Bristol County, Dukes County, Nantucket County, and the towns of Marion, Mattapoise ...
settled 101 abuse claims and initiated a zero-tolerance policy against sexual abuse. He also instituted one of the first comprehensive sexual abuse policies in the Roman Catholic Church.
On 11 December 2020, Father Mark R. Hesson, also known as "Father Mark", of Hyannisport, Massachusetts, was indicted on two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14, and one count of intimidation of a witness. Hesson was known to many locals because of his past work at Our Lady of Victory Church. He had delivered the homily at Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy's funeral in August 2009.
;Diocese of Honolulu
Reverend Joseph Bukoski, III, SS.CC., Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...
, a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary () abbreviated SS.CC., is a Roman Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men priests and brothers. The congregation is also known as the Picpus because their firs ...
, was canonically removed in 2003 as the pastor of Maria Lanakila Catholic Church
Maria Lanakila Catholic Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church of Hawaii in the United States. Located in Lahaina on the island of Maui, the church falls under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Honolulu and its bishop. The parish has ...
in Lahaina
Lahaina ( haw, Lāhainā) is the largest census-designated place (CDP) in West Maui, Maui County, Hawaii, United States and includes the Kaanapali and Kapalua beach resorts. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a resident population of 12,702. Lah ...
by Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo for allegations relating to sexual improprieties some 30 years earlier. Bukoski issued a written public apology to his victim on 12 November 2005.
Reverend Mr. James "Ron" Gonsalves
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
, Wailuku, Hawaii
Wailuku is a census-designated place (CDP) in and county seat of Maui County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 17,697 at the 2020 census.
Wailuku is located just west of Kahului, at the mouth of the Iao Valley. In the early 20th cent ...
, administrator of Saint Ann Roman Catholic Church in Waihee, Maui, pleaded guilty on 17 May 2006 to several counts of sexual assault of a 12-year-old male. Bishop Clarence Richard Silva
Clarence Richard Silva (born August 6, 1949), known as Larry Silva, is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been serving as bishop of the Diocese of Honolulu since 2005.
Silva is the first priest born in Hawaii to beco ...
has permanently withdrawn his faculties and has initiated laicization proceedings against Deacon Gonsalves with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible ...
.
;Archdiocese of Los Angeles
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles ( la, Archidiœcesis Angelorum in California, es, Arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles) is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church (Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites, particularly ...
agreed to pay out 60 million dollars to settle 45 lawsuits; it faces more than 450 other pending cases. According to the Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
, 22 priests were named in the settlement, with some cases going back as far as the 1930s. 20 million dollars of the total was paid by the insurers of the archdiocese. The main administrative office of the archdiocese is due to be sold to cover the cost of these and future lawsuits. The archdiocese will settle about 500 cases for about $600 million.
;Diocese of Memphis
The Diocese of Memphis reached a $2 million settlement with a man who was abused as a boy by Father Juan Carlos Duran. This priest had a history of sexual misconduct with juveniles in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, as well as Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
, and Bolivia.
;Archdiocese of Miami
Since 1966, the Archdiocese of Miami
The Archdiocese of Miami ( la, Archidioecesis Miamiensis, es, Arquidiócesis de Miami, ht, Achidyosèz Miami) is a particular church of the Catholic Church in the United States of America. Its ecclesiastical territory consists of Broward, Miami ...
insurance programs have paid $26.1 million in settlement, legal, and counseling costs associated with sexual misconduct allegations made by minors involving priests, laity, and religious brothers and sisters.
;Archdiocese of Milwaukee
A 2003 report on the sexual abuse of minors by clergy in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee revealed that allegations of sexually assaulting minors had been made against 58 ordained men. By early 2009, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee had spent approximately $26.5 million in attorney fees and settlements. Under Archbishop Timothy Dolan
Timothy Michael Dolan (born February 6, 1950) is an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is the tenth and current Archbishop of New York, having been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
Dolan served as the president of the United S ...
, the archdiocese was able to avoid bankruptcy from lawsuits.
A Wisconsin priest, the Rev. Lawrence C Murphy, who taught at the former St. John School for the Deaf in the Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
suburb of St. Francis, Wisconsin
St. Francis is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 9,161 at the 2020 census.
History
St. Francis Seminary was established in what is now the city in 1845. The Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi establishe ...
, from 1950 to 1974, allegedly molested more than 200 deaf boys. Several U.S. bishops warned the Holy See that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church. Murphy was moved by Milwaukee Archbishop William E Cousins to Superior, Wisconsin, a small city near Lake Superior. During his final 24 years, he worked with children in parishes, schools, and a juvenile detention center. He died in 1998. As of March 2010, there were four outstanding lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in the case.
;Archdiocese of New Orleans
The Archdiocese of New Orleans filed for bankruptcy on 1 May 2020, saying it needed reorganization to provide time to develop a plan for settling claims using its assets and insurance.
;Diocese of Oakland
In 1981, the former Rev. Stephen Kiesle was convicted of tying up and molesting two boys in a California church rectory. From 1981 to 1985, Bishop John Stephen Cummins
John Stephen Cummins (born March 3, 1928) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Oakland in California from 1977 to 2003 and as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento in California f ...
, who oversaw Kiesle, contacted the Holy See about laicizing him. Then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...
, the future Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...
, responded by letter that the case needed more time, as it was "necessary to consider the good of the Universal Church" and "the detriment that granting the dispensation" could provoke among the faithful. In 1987, the Holy See laicized Kiesle. The letter was widely regarded as evidence of Ratzinger's role in blocking the removal of pedophile priests. Holy See officials responded that that interpretation rested on a misreading of the letter, in which the issue was not whether Kiesle should be laicized but whether he should be granted the dispensation he had requested from the obligation of chastity
Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when ma ...
. By refusing to grant such a dispensation right away in the Kiesle case, Ratzinger was actually being tough with an abuser, not lax.
;Archdiocese of Omaha
In 2018, the Archdiocese of Omaha unveiled the names of 38 priests and other clergy members who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct, a move prompted by a request from the state's top prosecutor. At least two men on the list where convicted and served prison sentences for molesting children. Among those listed was defrocked Omaha priest Daniel Herek, who was sentenced to prison in 1999 for sexually assaulting and videotaping a 14-year-old boy. He also served jail time several years later for exposing himself in an Omaha parking lot as well. John Fiala, who left the Omaha Archdiocese in 1996, was also among those listed. Fiala died in 2017 in a Texas prison after being convicted of sexually abusing a teenage boy and of trying to hire a hit man to kill the victim. The 2018 list was also accompanied by a written apology from Omaha Archbishop George Lucas.
;Diocese of Helena
During his tenure as the Bishop of Helena, Montana, Archbishop Elden Francis Curtiss chose to reassign a priest who had been accused of pedophilia in 1959, later admitting that he had not properly examined the church's personnel file on the individual concerned. Curtiss faced similar criticism in 2001 in regard to a priest accused of accessing child pornography. Curtiss, it was alleged, had failed to bring the case to the attention of the authorities, and had chosen to send the priest for counseling and to reassign the priest, removing him from his high-school teaching position but reassigning him to a middle-school.
;Diocese of Orange, California
On 3 January 2005 Bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
Tod Brown of the Diocese of Orange apologized to 87 alleged victims of sexual abuse and announced a settlement of $100 million following two years of mediation.
;Diocese of Palm Beach
Joseph Keith Symons resigned as ordinary in 1998 after admitting he molested five boys while he was a pastor
A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...
. Symons' successor, Anthony O'Connell
Anthony J. O'Connell (May 10, 1938 – May 4, 2012) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic church. He served as the first of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, Diocese of Knoxville in Tennessee from 1988 to 1998. He later ser ...
, resigned in 2002, after admitting that he, too, had engaged in sexual abuse.
;Catholic Church in Pennsylvania
:;Archdiocese of Philadelphia
:
:According to a 2005 investigation, while serving as assistant vicar for administration in 1996, Bishop Cistone was involved with silencing a nun who tried to alert parishioners at St. Gabriel parish about abuse by a priest. According to the report, there were several other instances of priest sexual abuse that Cistone was complicit in covering up.
;Diocese of Peoria
Coadjutor Bishop John J. Myers
John Joseph Myers (July 26, 1941 – September 24, 2020) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Peoria in Illinois between 1990 and 2001, ecclesiastical superior of Turks and Caicos from 2 ...
of Peoria was among the two-thirds of sitting bishops and acting diocese administrators that the '' Dallas Morning News'' found had allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to continue working.
;Diocese of Phoenix
On 21 November 2005, Monsignor Dale Fushek of the Diocese of Phoenix
The Diocese of Phoenix ( la, Dioecesis Phoenicensis; es, Diócesis de Phoenix) is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory or diocese in the state of Arizona in the United States. It was established on December 2, 1969, when it was split off ...
was arrested and charged with 10 criminal misdemeanor counts related to alleged inappropriate sexual contact with teens and young adults.
;Archdiocese of Portland (Oregon)
The Archdiocese of Portland
The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon (''Archidioecesis Portlandensis in Oregonia'') is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It encompasses the western part of the state of Oregon, from the s ...
filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on 6 July 2004, hours before two abuse trials were set to begin. Portland became the first Catholic diocese to file for bankruptcy. An open letter to the archdiocese's parishioners explained the archbishop's motivation.
;Archdiocese of San Antonio
John Salazar
John Tony Salazar (born July 21, 1953) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2005 until 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed Commissioner of the Colorado Department of Agriculture in the C ...
was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting an 18-year-old parishioner.
;Diocese of San Diego
On 27 February 2007, the Diocese of San Diego filed for Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...
protection, hours before the first of about 150 lawsuits was due to be heard.
;Diocese of Savannah
In October 2009, the diocese of Savannah paid $4.24 million to settle a lawsuit which alleged that Lessard allowed a priest named Wayland Brown to work in the diocese when Lessard knew that Brown was a serial child molester who posed a danger to children.
;Diocese of Spokane
Under Bishop William S. Skylstad
William Stephen Skylstad (born March 2, 1934, in Omak, Washington (U.S. state), Washington) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic church, Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Diocese of Sp ...
the Diocese of Spokane declared bankruptcy in December 2004. As part of its bankruptcy, the diocese has agreed to pay at least $48 million as compensation. This payout has to be agreed to by the victims and a judge before it will be made. According to federal bankruptcy judge, Gregg W. Zive, money for the settlement would come from insurance companies, the sale of church property, contributions from Catholic groups and from the diocese's parishes.
;Diocese of Stockton
Fr. Oliver O'Grady molested multiple children in Stockton. The 2006 documentary '' Deliver Us from Evil'' is based on accusations that Bishop Roger Mahony
Roger Michael Mahony (born February 27, 1936) is an American cardinal and retired prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011. Before his appointment, he served as Auxiliary Bishop of Fresno from ...
knew that Oliver O'Grady was an active pedophile.
;Diocese of Tucson
The Diocese of Tucson filed for bankruptcy in September 2004. It reached an agreement with plaintiffs, which the bankruptcy judge approved on 11 June 2005, specifying terms that included allowing the diocese reorganization to continue in return for a $22.2 million settlement.
; Diocese of Wheeling–Charleston, West Virginia
Bishop Michael J. Bransfield resigned, effective immediately, in September 2018 over unspecified allegations of sexual misconduct.
Oceania
Australia
In 2017, the established that some 4,444 claimants alleged incidents of child sexual abuse in 4,756 reported claims to Catholic Church authorities (some claimants made a claim of child sexual abuse against more than one Catholic Church authority) and at least 1,880 suspected abusers from 1980 to 2015. Most of those suspected of abuse were Catholic priests and religious brothers and 62 percent of the survivors who told the commission they were abused in religious institutions were abused in a Catholic facility.[Royal Commission: ANALYSIS OF CLAIMS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE MADE WITH RESPECT TO CATHOLIC CHURCH INSTITUTIONS IN AUSTRALIA](_blank)
; June 2017 By means of a weighted index, the Commission found that at 75 archdioceses/dioceses and religious institutes with priest members examined, some 7 per cent of priests who worked in Australia between 1950 and 2009. On 3 June 2019, 18 months after being ordered to do so by the commission, the Australian Catholic Church published its National Catholic Safeguarding Standards. The standards closely parallel the commission's recommendations as well as norms enshrined by the government in the National Principles for Child Safe Organizations, although some provisions were watered down. One notable alteration concerned the number of hours per year that people should be undergoing professional and pastoral supervision, which was reduced from the recommended 12 hours to 6 hours.
The Salvation Army, too, has not escaped scrutiny. According to the investigation, hundreds of kids were sexually abused at Australia's Salvation Army boys' homes in Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
and New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
in the 1960s and 1970s.
;Archdiocese of Sydney
* Ross Murrin: Catholic brother pleaded guilty to sexually abusing eight male students.
;Archdiocese of Melbourne
There were several cases of sexual abuse in the Melbourne Archdiocese.
* Michael Charles Glennon
Michael Charles Glennon (13 May 1944 – 1 January 2014) was a convicted Australian child molester and former Roman Catholic priest, the subject of one of the most notorious clergy sex abuse cases in Australia. Glennon ran a youth camp in L ...
: former diocesan priest, sentenced to at least 15 years in jail for sexually abusing four Aboriginal boys between 1984 and 1991.
* Gerry Francis Ridsdale: convicted in 1994, he pleaded guilty on 46 sexual offenses.
* Wilfred James Baker: sentenced to four years in prison (parole after two years) for crimes involving eight boys.
* David Daniel: sentenced to six years' jail, with parole after 4½ years, for molesting four boys, a girl and an adult male.
* Paul Pavlou: convicted on 29 June 2009 of committing an indecent act with a child under 16 and of being knowingly in possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to an 18-month jail sentence suspended for 24 months and to a two-year community based order. He was registered on the Sex Offenders Register for 15 years. These offences occurred in 2005–2006 while he was the priest at Healesville in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
* Francis Klep SDB: convicted of indecent assault in 1994, and charged with an additional five counts. He moved to Samoa, but in 2004 the Samoan government made moves to deport him from the country after becoming aware of the previous conviction and charges.
In September 2020, the Australian state of Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
passed legislation which makes it so religious institutions, such as the Catholic Church and their members are no longer able to use the sanctity of confession as a defence against failing to report material information about the sexual abuse of children. Under the new Queensland law, clergy who refuse to report confessions of sex abuse will face a maximum sentence of three years in prison. In October 2020, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that the church had failed to intervene against Thomas Butler, a Marist Brother known as Brother Patrick, when students reported that he sexually abused them within the three-year period he taught at Queensland capital Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
's Marist College Ashgrove
, motto_translation = Act Courageously
, location = Ashgrove, Brisbane, Queensland
, country = Australia
, coordinates =
, pushpin_map = Australia Queensland
, pushpin_ima ...
. Butler had received sex abuse complaints in between 1991 and 1993. Provincial of the Marist Brothers in Australia, Brother Peter Carroll, delivered an apology at the royal commission's public hearing.
New Zealand
The abuse scandal at the Marylands School
Marylands School was a residential school for children with learning difficulties in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was opened in 1955 and run by the Roman Catholic order Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God.
The school was in Middleton but ...
is an important chapter in the clerical abuse affairs in New Zealand but other cases have also emerged.
South America
Argentina
On 17 August 2019, Argentina Bishop Sergio Buenanueva of San Francisco, Cordoba, acknowledged the history of sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Argentina. Buenanueva, who was labeled as a "Prelate" for the Argentine Catholic Church, also stated that the church's sex abuse crisis in Argentina, which is Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
's native country, was "just beginning". On 15 July 2020, it was revealed that a lawyer had issued criminal charges against Archbishops Eduardo Martin of Rosario and Sergio Fenoy of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz for seeking to "supplant the public prosecutor's office" by encouraging complaints to another body.
A ''Network of Survivors of Ecclesiastical Abuse in Argentina'' has been set up.[
;Archdiocese of La Plata
Accused Diocese of Mendoza priest Fr. Nicola Corradi was also charged by authorities in Buenos Aires province of sexually abusing children at a school in La Plata.] The Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf in Mendoza province, where Corradi was also accused of molesting children, kept secret archives in the province's city of La Plata. The La Plata school where Corradi is accused of molesting children is also a sister school to the Antonio Provolo Institute. Corradi was later convicted for the Mendoza sex abuse charges and received a prison sentence of 42 years.
;Diocese of Orán
On 10 June 2019, former Orán Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta was criminally charged with sexually abusing two seminarians. Zanchetta, who was one of Pope Francis's first appointments in his home country, was first accused of "strange behaviour" in 2015 when pornographic pictures, including naked selfies, were found on his phone. In August 2017, Pope Francis required Zanchetta to resign as Bishop of Orán, citing "health reasons", but then appointed him to serve as Assessor, or Councilor, to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. He was barred from leaving the country, had to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, and faced up to ten years in prison if convicted. On 28 May 2019 Pope Francis said a Holy See trial would begin soon. A anonymous local priest told ''Crux'' on 13 August 2019 that the diocese had "not one, not two, not three, but several" cases of sex abuse. On 28 August 2019, it was announced that Zanchetta's travel ban had been lifted and that he had returned to Rome.
On 7 November 2019, the main offices of the Diocese of Oran were raided by police as part of a different investigation Zanchetta for financial fraud. On 27 November 2019, Zanchetta returned voluntarily to Argentina and appeared in court earlier than required. A judge once again allowed Zanchetta to return to the Vatican provided he inform the court if he changed his address.
Zanchetta denied the charges and said that he was a victim of revenge by priests in Orán with whom he had differences. On 4 March 2022 he was found guilty of sexually abusing two seminarians and sentenced to four and a half years' imprisonment.
;Diocese of Morón
In 2009, Julio Grassi was found guilty (by a three-judge panel of the Criminal Court Oral 1 Morón) of one count of sexual abuse and one count of corrupting a minor in the "Happy Children’s Foundation".
;Archdiocese of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz
Allegations of sexual abuse by Archbishop Edgardo Storni on 47 young seminarists surfaced in 1994, and were published in 2000. This led to a victim from a 1992 incident coming forward, followed by a conviction for eight years in December 2009.
;Archdiocese of Mendoza
*In 2016, two priests, Fr. Nicola Corradi and Fr. Horacio Corbacho, and three other men employed at one of the Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf's Argentine schools were arrested in Mendoza, Argentina in 2016 for abuse of children. Corradi had previously been accused as early as 2009 of committing sex abuse at the Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf's main campus in Verona, Italy. On 6 May 2017, Argentine authorities charged Japanese nun Sr Kosaka Kumiko with abusing children at the very same Argentine school as well, and also for covering up sex abuse committed by the two priests as well. On 15 June 2019, it was announced that the two priests will stand trial on 5 August 2019. The two priests will face trial in Argentina, where they were jailed after being accused of sexually abusing 22 children at the Argentine school. Former institute employee Armando Gomez also would serve as a co-defendant. The trial began as scheduled. Former institute employee Jorge Bordón had been sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018 for sex abuse at the institute as well.
*On 25 November 2019 priests Nicola Corradi, 83, and Horacio Corbacho, 59, were each found guilty of sexually abusing deaf children at a Catholic school for the deaf in Luján de Cuyo
Luján de Cuyo is the district capital of the Luján de Cuyo Department located in the west of the Mendoza Province of Argentina. It forms part of the Greater Mendoza metropolitan area.
Wine
It was the first delineated appellation
An appella ...
from 2004 to 2016. They were sentenced to 42 and 45 years in prison respectively. Their garderner Armando Gómez was jailed for 18 years. Aside from Gómez, several other school faculty, including Kumiko, have been jailed for complicity since the abuse allegations surfaced in 2016. At the time of the convictions, Kumiko was still being held in prison awaiting trial.
*Two monks from the archdiocese's Christ at Prayer Monastery in the town of Tupungato were arrested on 27 December 2018 and charged with sexually abusing one boy and one adult male between 2009 and 2015. The monks, Fr. Diego Roque and Fr. Oscar Portillo, were originally from Buenos Aires and have led the monastery since its founding in 1996. Both monks will remain under house arrest until trial. The sex abuse allegations against the two monks, who still remain in custody, forced the Archdiocese to close the monastery, which then had only four monks, "until further notice" in January 2019.
Brazil
;Diocese of Anápolis
Anápolis (, ) is a Brazilian city in the State of Goiás. It is located between two capitals, the federal capital Brasília and state capital Goiânia. It is the third most populous city in the state, with 391,772 inhabitants according to an es ...
* Fr. Tarcísio Tadeu Spricigo was arrested after his checklist for choosing victims was found and given to police. He had molested children in at least five parishes. The case was one of those featured in an episode of the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'' and became an example of the Vatican's policies regarding pedophile priests. In November 2005 he was sentenced to a prison term of over 14 years.
* Fr. Felix Barbosa Carreiro was arrested and charged with child sexual abuse in the northeastern state of Maranhão after police seized him in a hotel room with four teenage boys.
;Archdiocese of Penedo
* In 2010 authorities in Brazil began an investigation into three priests after a video allegedly showing a priest sexually abusing an altar boy was broadcast on the
television station.
;Archdiocese of Santiago
* José Andrés Aguirre Ovalle, aka "Cura Tato", was found guilty of nine sexual abuse charges by the highest court of this country. In 2004 Aguirre was sentenced to 12 years in jail. At the beginning of this trial, the Catholic Church was sentenced to pay 50 million in damages to the victims, but then this sentence was revoked by the supreme court.
* Ricardo Muñoz Quinteros, priest of
, was charged in 2010 with eight cases of sexually abusing minors, including his own daughter. Quinteros is also being investigated for producing pornographic material involving children.
* In 2010, the Catholic Church began an investigation into sexual abuse allegedly committed by Fr.
, after four people came forward with allegations of abuse. He was found guilty and convicted by the Holy See on 18 February 2011. He was sentenced to a life of prayer and penitence, banned from any contact with his ex parishioners and forbidden to perform any priestly ministry in public or private except for mass by himself. Karadima has not acknowledged any wrongdoing. On 28 September 2018, Pope Francis issued a communique ordering the laicization of Karadima
* In 2018, a lawsuit was filed against the Archdiocese of Santiago for allegations of covering up sex abuse committed by Karadima On 27 March 2019, however the Court of Appeals ordered the Archdiocese to pay 100 million pesos (about US$147,000) for "moral damages" to each of the survivors: Juan Carlos Cruz, José Andrés Murillo and James Hamilton.
The ruling was confirmed by their lawyer Juan Pablo Hermosilla and Santiago Bishop Celestino Aos on 28 March.
;Diocese of Valparaíso
* Eduardo Olivares Martínez, was found guilty of a five sexual abuse against underprivileged minors. In 2006 was sentenced to 3 years in jail and to pay 15 million pesos in damages.
* In 2010, Juan Henríquez Zapata was indicted for using minors for sex services.
;Diocese of Rancagua
* Jorge Galaz Espinoza, former Director of El Pequeño Cottolengo, was found guilty of repeated violations against two mentally disabled minors. In 2005 Galaz was sentenced to 15 years in jail.
;Diocese of Punta Arenas
* Jaime Low Cabezas, was found guilty of a sexual abuse against a 15-year-old minor. In 2009 Low was sentenced to 3 years in jail.
* Víctor Hugo Carrera, was found guilty of a sexual abuse against one underprivileged minor. In 2005 Carrera was sentenced to 541 days in jail and to pay 2 million pesos in damages to the family of the victim. The case involved the
of the diocese, who was accused of protecting Carrera and facilitating his escape to Bolivia, where he lived for two years.
;Marist Brothers Education Facilities
*
, was suspended from ministry from 2012 to 2017 after he was found guilty of sexually abusing minors and vulnerable adults at Marist Brothers facilities he visited. Was later laicized by Pope Francis in 2018
*Miguel Ortega was also found guilty of sexually abusing children at Marist Brothers facilities.
He died in 2015.
*In 2017, it was revealed that at least 14 minors were abused by Marist Brother Abel Perez from the 1970s until 2000 at the Instituto Alonso de Ercilla and the Marcelino Champagnat schools in Chile.
Perez confessed the alleged abuse to his superiors in 2010, and was then transferred to Peru.
;Society of Jesus
* Rev. Stefan Dartmann disclosed that the same abusive teacher in Germany had been guilty of similar crimes in Jesuit schools in Chile and Spain.
*In August 2019, revelations surfaced that Jesuit Father Renato Poblete, who died in 2010, had sexually abused 18 adult women and four underage female minors.
He also impregnated at least one of these women and forced her to have an abortion.
One of the minors he abused was only three years old and a daughter of one of his adult victims as well.
with a 12-year-old boy, of whom he was taking sexually explicit pictures. The boy was initially lured by Murguía Ward in
figures in exchange for photos of his intimate parts. When Murguía Ward was caught, he had paid the boy 20 soles (US$7) for his services in the hostel. The police have reported that pictures of two other boys were also found on Murguía Ward's camera and that the boy has claimed he received oral sex from Murguía Ward. These charges have been denied by the accused. Murguía Ward has since been removed from the SCV for his alleged misconduct.
, NGO for victims in USA
; Investigation, prevention and victim support related topics
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