Factbox - CHRISTIAN CHURCH SEX SCANDALS
and/or www.mantra.com/jai
Reuters
Sunday, February 14, 2010
(Reuters) - Pope Benedict and Irish bishops will hold two days of
meeting on Monday and Tuesday over the vast paedophilia scandal that
has rocked the Church in devoutly Roman Catholic Ireland.
Following are details of some of the major abuse scandals that have
rocked the Roman Catholic Church around the world.
* IRELAND - April 2002 - Bishop Brendan Comiskey of Ferns, one of
Ireland's best-known clerics, resigned over his handling of charges
against a priest of his diocese who committed suicide in 1999 while
facing 66 charges of sexual abuse.
-- March 2009 - Bishop John Magee of Cloyne, under fire for his
handling of reports of sexual abuse, quit his daily duties to deal
with the inquiry.
-- May 2009 - The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse issued a
harrowing five-volume report that took nine years to compile. It said
priests beat and raped children during decades of abuse in Catholic-
run institutions.
-- Nov. 2009 - A government-commissioned inquiry into abuse in Dublin
from 1975 to 2004 released on Nov. 26 said church authorities covered
up widespread cases of child sexual abuse until the mid-1990s.
-- Dec. 2009 - After meeting two Irish Church leaders, Pope Benedict
says he shares the "outrage, betrayal and shame" over the scandal in
their country.
* UNITED STATES - Dec. 2002 - Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law resigned
over charges he transferred clerical abusers to other parishes to
cover up the scandal.
-- June 2002 - The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops directed
dioceses to investigate all charges of sexual abuse.
-- Feb. 2004 - Independent researchers commissioned by the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops said a total of 10,667 people accused
U.S. priests of child sexual abuse from 1950 through 2002. More than
17 percent of accusers had siblings who were also allegedly abused.
Among accusers, 47 percent said they had been abused numerous times.
-- July 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $660
million to 500 victims of sexual abuse dating as far back as the
1940s in the largest compensation deal of its kind.
-- April 2008 Pope Benedict met victims of sexual abuse by priests
during his visit to the United States in an effort to heal the scars.
The U.S. Church has paid some $2 billion in settlements to victims
since the scandal first broke in 1992.
-- Oct. 2009 - The diocese of Wilmington, Delaware filed for
bankruptcy protection. It later agreed to provide documents to
alleged sex abuse victims to postpone the start of about 80 civil
cases. Since 2002, the Wilmington diocese has settled eight cases for
an average of about $780,000 each.
* AUSTRALIA - July 2008 - On a visit to Australia, Pope Benedict
apologised for sexual abuse by clergy, condemning it as "evil" and
saying abusers should be brought to justice. At that time there had
been 107 convictions for sexual abuse in the Catholic Church there.
* AUSTRIA - July 2004 - Austrian News magazine Profil ran pictures of
priests kissing and groping seminarians at a Roman Catholic seminary
in the St. Poelten diocese.
* BRITAIN - July 2000 - London Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor
acknowledged making a mistake in a previous post in the 1980s by
allowing a paedophile priest to continue working. The priest was
jailed in 1997 for abusing nine boys over a 20-year period.
* CANADA - Oct 2009 - Bishop Raymond Lahey of Antigonish in Nova
Scotia was charged with possession and importation of child
pornography. Earlier this year, he had overseen a C$13 million ($12
million) settlement with clerical abuse victims in the Antigonish
diocese in a case dating back to 1950.
* MEXICO - March 2009 - Pope Benedict ordered a probe of the Legion
of Christ priestly order whose founder was discovered to be a sexual
molester. In 2006, Pope Benedict told the founder, Father Marcial
Maciel, to retire to a life of "prayer and penitence". Maciel died in
2008.
Sources: Reuters/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
More at:
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-46157620100214?sp=true
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
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