Child Abuse Scandals at the Heart of the Catholic Church

Globalpost
February 5, 2014

http://www.globalpost.com/node/6062424

The UN denounced the Vatican on Wednesday for failing to stamp out child abuse, and called on the Church to remove all clergy suspected of raping or molesting children.

The following are paedophilia scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church in recent years:

- Canada: The Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, Newfoundland was closed in 1990 after it emerged that staff had systematically abused 300 residents over several decades.

In 2002, associations representing more than 10,000 self-declared victims joined forces to seek compensation.

- United States: In 2004 a criminal investigation found that 4,400 priests had sexually abused minors between 1950 and 2002, and that the abuse had affected about 11,000 children.

The former archbishop of Boston, Bernard Law, was forced to resign in 2002 for having protected paedophile priests, and former archbishop of Los Angeles Roger Mahony agreed to pay $660 million to 500 presumed victims.

- Ireland: In one of the most staunchly Catholic countries in Europe, a priest admitted to sexually abusing more than 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.

- Germany: In early 2010, hundreds of alleged cases of child sex abuse in church institutions emerged, notably at the Jesuit college Canisius in Berlin where about 20 cases were reported.

In late 2012, a report said at least 66 church officials had been accused of sex abuse.

- Belgium: Former bishop of Bruges Roger Vangheluwe resigned in 2010 after acknowledging that he had abused two nephews. Thousands of other potential cases have emerged since then.

The Commission on Church-related Sexual Abuse Complaints, set up by the Catholic Church, has probed hundreds of cases of sexual abuse.

- The Netherlands: In late 2011, a report said "several tens of thousands of minors" had been abused within church institutions between 1945 and 2010, and around 800 suspects have been identified.

- Australia: Scandals include sexual abuse in the 1970s and 1980s in a Catholic school in Bathurst, west of Sydney. A national probe launched in April 2013 is expected to hear from some 5,000 presumed victims in religious, associative and public institutions.

- Austria: A series of scandals, including years of abuse by a priest in a Salzburg monastery, has revealed some 800 cases in all.

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