UNITED STATES
KBZK
Jun 29, 2017
By Madison Park CNN
(CNN) — For more than three decades, the Catholic Church has been rocked by sex abuse scandals spanning the globe.
And for decades, the church has been accused of protecting itself rather than the victims of child sexual abuse.
Here are some major scandals and revelations involving the Catholic Church and allegations of abuse.
Australia 2017
Cardinal George Pell, one of the most senior members of the Catholic Church, was charged with multiple historical sexual assault offenses in his home country of Australia, police said.
Pell serves as a top adviser to Pope Francis and is the Vatican’s top financial adviser. In 2013, he was named one of eight cardinals tasked with investigating ways to reform the church. He is the most senior member of the Catholic Church in Australia.
Pell said he’s innocent and maintains that the charges are false.
Earlier in the year, a commission found that 7% of Australian priests were accused of abusing children between 1950 and 2015.
Dominican Republic, 2014
Jozef Wesolowski, a former Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic was found guilty of sexual abuse of minors by a Vatican tribunal and defrocked in 2014. He was accused of sexual abuse of minors and possession of child pornography during his time as papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic. Italy’s Corriere della Sera reported that Wesolowski’s laptop contained more than 100,000 files with pornographic images and videos.
Wesolowski was the highest-ranking Catholic official arrested for alleged sexual abuse of minors. He died in 2015, before he could be put on trial.
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