High-profile scandals with pedophilia in the Catholic Church

Portugal presented this Monday an investigation sexual harassment against minors in the Catholic Church, a scourge that has also affected institutions in countries such as the United States, Chile or Australia.

Portugal

Since 1950, Portugal’s Catholic clergy have sexually abused at least 4,815 minors, according to a commission of inquiry.

Most of crimes convicts were registered, but 25 charges were transferred to the judicial authorities, which opened investigations.

USA

Catholic Church USA received complaints between 1950 and 2018 from more than 20,000 minors who claimed to have been abused by about 7,000 members of the clergy, according to the bishop’s accountability.org website, which collects cases.

In 2002, the Boston Globe reported that the Boston Catholic hierarchy, including Archbishop Bernard Low, covered up sexual harassment committed by nearly 90 priests over decades.

In 2019 Pope Francisco expelled Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from the church for allegations of sexual abuse of teenagers in the 1970s.

Chile

Over 200 members Church The Chilean government investigated 150 cases sexual harassment. More than 240 victims have been identified, of which 123 are minors.

The most notorious was the allegations of priest Fernando Karadima of assaulting minors between the 1980s and 1990s in a wealthy parish in the capital, Santiago.

During a controversial visit to Chile in 2018 Pope Francisco he was accused of inaction, supporting the bishop, accused of hiding the crimes attributed to Karadima. The pontiff pronounced mea culpa and in Rome accepted the resignation of seven Chilean bishops.

Germany

A 2017 survey found that at least 547 minors in Regensburg’s Catholic choir were abused between 1945 and the early 1990s.

In 2018, scientists concluded that 3,677 minors in Germany were victims of sexual abuse between 1946 and 2014.

He Pope Benedict XVIwho died in December, was questioned when he was already honorary in 2022 for his management pedophilia in Germany when he was Archbishop of Munich.

Between 1945 and 2019, at least 497 people were victims of attacks, mostly children and teenagers, according to a report from that diocese.

France

IC submitted an investigation in October 2021 sexual abuse inside French Catholic Church and it is estimated that 330,000 minors have been victimized by priests, religious figures and people close to Catholic institutions since 1950. These figures are estimates.

Ireland

IN Ireland first accusations appeared in the 1980s.

Beginning in 2008, the Church launched a series of internal investigations into allegations of sexual harassment committed since 1975 by at least 85 priests.

Poland

Catholic Church of Poland hundreds of complaints have been received since 2018 sexual harassment in relation to minors assigned to the clergy.

In 2019, he acknowledged that about 400 priests had sexually abused children over the course of three decades.

Australia

After a series of scandals, a government commission conducted an investigation between 2013 and 2017. Catholic Church and other institutions accepting minors.

The report concluded that 7% catholic religious they were charged with assaulting minors between 1950 and 2010, which did not involve an investigation into the facts.

AFP