[5][6] Up to 40,000 photos and an undisclosed number of films, including child pornography, were found on the computer of one of the seminarians, but Krenn earlier angered many by calling the images a "childish prank".
In about half of the 32 cases, the alleged abusers, clerics and religious, refused to appear before the commission, due to a lack of cooperation from the Belgian episcopate in forcing hierarchical obeyance to do so.
[42] On 3 June 2019, the French Catholic Church activated a sex abuse commission—made up of 22 legal professionals, doctors, historians, sociologists and theologians—which will obtain witness statements and deliver its conclusions by the end of 2020.
This statement was in line with 2020 Vatican guidance on clerical child abuse cases, which state that any crime discovered during confession is subject to "the strictest bond of the sacramental seal".
[85] 65-year-old Canadian-born priest Denis Vadeboncoeur of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Évreux was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the rape of minors at the paroisse de Lieurey (Eure) between 1989 and 1992.
[69] In February 2019, an unnamed 60 year-old priest was convicted by a court in Colmar for sexually assaulting four young female parishioners, one of whom was only nine years-old, and embezzling 100,000 euros ($115,000) to pay one of his victims to keep silent.
In January 1980, Cardinal Ratzinger approved the transfer of Father Peter Hullermann, who had been accused of sexual abuse, including forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform oral sex upon him, to Munich to undergo therapy.
Gerhard Gruber, who was at the time vicar general in Munich, assumed total responsibility for the decision to readmit Hullermann to pastoral care work, expressing regret and seeming to suggest that Cardinal Ratzinger had not been fully informed.
[118] In February 2018, a 53-year-old ex-priest from Deggendorf whose name and identity were kept anonymous was convicted in 108 child abuse cases and was order to be detained for a minimum period of eight and a half years in a psychiatric detention, where he could also serve a potential life sentence depending on the outcome of his therapy.
"[108] The report also stated that former bishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller bears "clear responsibility for the strategic, organizational and communicative weaknesses" in the diocese's effort to investigate claims of past abuse when they surfaced.
Magee apologised to the victims after a report compiled by the Health Service Executive (HSE) found his diocese had put children at risk of harm through an "inability" to respond appropriately to abuse allegations.
The report revealed over one hundred cases of child sex abuse in the diocese, involving a number of clergymen, including Monsignor Micheál Ledwidth, the former head of the National Catholic seminary, Maynooth College.
[154] In August 2019, Father Stefano Segalini, a well-known former priest from Northern Italy's Diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio, was placed under house arrest after being charged with drugging adult members of his parish and then sexually abusing them afterwards.
[163] In June 2014, Sergio Librizzi, the regional director for Caritas Internationalis in Trapani, was arrested at the vicarage as he was preparing for mass and charged with forcing immigrants to have sex with him in exchange for granting them asylum[164][165] He was convicted of bribery and given a nine-year prison, which was later overturned in December 2017.
[168] Former ACCA leader Piero Alfio Capuana, who stationed his group's headquarters in Acireale, was jailed in 2017 on charges of sexually abusing 10 underage girls whose ages ranged between 11 and 16.
[177] School gardener Armando Gómez was also convicted and jailed for 18 years, while Japanese nun Sr. Kosako Kumiko, who was arrested in May 2017 on charges of covering up the acts of sex abuse,[177] was still being held in prison awaiting trial.
[179] In September 2021, a priest in the Diocese of Prato (a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Florence), Francesco Spagnesi, was arrested for stealing "church funds and donations to buy drugs for gay sex parties that he hosted".
Responding to criticism of the church President of the Polish Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Jozef Michalik, said "Often that inappropriate approach or abuse is released when the child is looking for love.
[204][205] On 27 September 2018, however, Bishop Romuald Kamiński of the Diocese of Warsaw-Praga stated that Polish church leaders were working on a document, to be published later, on priestly sexual abuse of minors in Poland, and ways to prevent it.
[208] Marek Lisinski, the co-founder of Don't Be Afraid, which represents victims of clerical abuse, said "Tell us how [the priests] hurt those children and how many times they were transferred to different parishes before you paid notice".
[212] Prosecutor and PiS lawmaker Stanislaw Piotrowicz, who heads the Polish Parliament's Justice Commission, has also been criticized for playing down the actions of a priest who was convicted for inappropriately touching and kissing young girls.
[236] On 18 May 2020, José Manuel Lorca Planes, who serves as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cartagena, announced the start of an "important inquiry" into sex abuse allegations spanning from 1950 to 2010.
[244] James Robinson worked in parishes in the English Midlands and when an accusation of child abuse happened in the 1980s, the Roman Catholic Church allowed him to escape to the United States though they knew about an "unwholesome relationship" the priest had with a boy.
[251] Alan Morris, a Catholic deacon who also once served not only as a teacher at St. Ambrose, but also as the school's deputy head, was convicted in 2014 of 19 counts of sexual abuse he committed between 1972 and 1990 and was given a nine-year prison sentence.
[256] In July 2000, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (later a cardinal), acknowledged he had made a mistake while he was Bishop of Arundel and Brighton in the 1980s by allowing a paedophile to carry on working as a priest.
[265] James Carragher, principal of the former St. William's residential school, Market Weighton owned by the Diocese of Middlesbrough, was jailed for 14 years in 2004 for abusing boys in his care over a 20-year period.
[268] In 2009, Dom David Pearce, a monk of Ealing Abbey and former headmaster of the junior department of its associated school, St Benedict's, was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing boys.
[301] For all of these convictions, McGrath received a sentence of 200 hours of unpaid community service, three years of supervised release, and will be placed on the sex offenders' register throughout the remainder of this life.
[309] A BBC Scotland Investigates programme, entitled Sins of Our Fathers,[310] reported allegations that Fort Augustus Abbey was used as a "dumping ground" for clergy previously accused of abuse elsewhere.
In particular, five men were raped or sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Carlekemp Priory School in North Berwick and Fort Augustus Abbey between 1953 and 1974.