Friday, March 12, 2010

Child abuse scandals faced by Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church has been hit by a series of allegations of child sexual abuse scandals in recent years. Here is is a timeline of the biggest scandals.

- In the United States, the church has paid out millions of dollars to compensate victims and also to head off lawsuits.

In 2002, Bernard Law, one of the top US cardinals, was forced to resign as archbishop of Boston over accusations that he had failed to denounce paedophile priests.

In 2004 a criminal investigation found that some 4,400 priests had engaged in sexual abuse of minors in the country between 1950 and 2002, and that the abuse had affected some 11,000 children.

- Ireland, one of the most staunchly Catholic countries in Europe, has seen a series of crises, leading Pope Benedict XVI to publicly rebuke its bishops last month for a "breakdown of trust".

Among many cases, one priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another said he had abused minors regularly over 25 years.

A total of 14,500 Irish children are reported to have been victims of abuse by clergy.

- In Germany Church child abuse scandals have recently emerged in 19 of the country's 27 dioceses. They have included the revelation that two priests abused pupils in a Jesuit school in Berlin in the 1970s and 1980s, and allegations that abuse occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, and possibly later, in a school attached to a cathedral in Regensburg where the brother of the current pope was choir master.

- Austria has seen a series of scandals, one including years of abuse by a priest in a Salzburg monastery. Accusations of sexual harassment led to the resignation of Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer as archbishop of Vienna in 1995.

- In Australia, Pope Benedict XVI met and apologised to victims of sexual abuse when he paid a visit last July.

Scandals included sexual abuse in the 1970s and 1980s in a Catholic school in the town of Bathurst, to the west of Sydney.

Among other countries hit by Church sex abuse scandals are: Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Canada, Mexico and Senegal.
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