Over many decades, priests and lay members of religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church had sexually abused children, principally boys, on such a large scale, that the accusations reached into the thousands.
"[4] A major aggravating factor was the actions of Catholic bishops to keep these crimes secret and to reassign the accused to other parishes in positions where they had continued unsupervised contact with youth.
[18] In July 2003, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville paid $25.7 million to "settle child sexual-abuse allegations made in 240 lawsuits naming 34 priests and other church workers.
[36][37] In October 2024, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will pay $880 million to compensate 1,350 victims (who were minors at the time) of sexual abuse by approximately 300 of their clergy members dating back decades.
[40] There were cases in cities across the United States, including but not limited to Boston, Chicago, Eureka, California, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Orange County, Palm Beach, Philadelphia, Portland, Oregon, and Toledo, Ohio.
"[50] The Vatican has declined to respond to the grand jury report detailing decades of sexual abuse and cover-ups by priests and bishops in Pennsylvania, refusing even to say whether church officials in Rome have read the damaging documents.
For example, 6,000 pages of documents released in a Milwaukee court case showed a pattern of ongoing abuse by a large number of priests who were being systematically switched to different assignments while church administrators failed to inform secular law enforcement agencies.
[18][54] In defense of this practice, some have pointed out that public school administrators acted in a similar manner when dealing with teachers accused of sexual misconduct,[55] as did the Boy Scouts of America.
In response to these allegations, defenders of the Church's actions have suggested that in reassigning priests after treatment, bishops were acting on the best medical advice then available, a policy also followed by the US public school system when dealing with accused teachers.
[8] In July 2003 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville paid $25.7 million to "settle child sexual-abuse allegations made in 240 lawsuits naming 34 priests and other church workers.
[27] Addressing "a flood of abuse claims" five dioceses (Tucson, Arizona; Spokane, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Davenport, Iowa, and San Diego) got bankruptcy protection.
George Rutler, the prestigious pastor of the Church of St. Michael in Manhattan who gained notoriety for criticizing high-profile Irish politician Leo Varadkar's homosexually, was arrested on charges of groping female security guard Ashley Gonzalez.
The meeting's participants drew up a final statement, which called for a set of national standards for dealing with sexual abuse of minors by priests and new procedures for dismissing from the clerical state those found guilty of that crime.
[92] The National Review Board engaged the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York to conduct a study analyzing allegations of sexual abuse in Catholic dioceses in United States.
[citation needed] A second John Jay report, titled The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950–2010, was published in May 2011.
[78] In April 2003, the Pontifical Academy for Life organized a three-day conference, entitled "Abuse of Children and Young People by Catholic Priests and Religious", where eight non-Catholic psychiatric experts were invited to speak to near all Vatican dicasteries' representatives.
[99] In response to these allegations, defenders of the Church's actions have suggested that in reassigning priests after treatment, bishops were acting on the best medical advice then available, a policy also followed by the US public school system when dealing with accused teachers.
Following the first publications, The Boston Globe continued to publish new articles on a daily basis and exposed hundreds of cases where priests were involved in sexual abuse scandals.
[2] Differing perspectives and misconceptions contributed to negative public opinion in the U.S. towards what was perceived as the failure of the Catholic hierarchy to respond adequately to allegations of sexual abuse and the seemingly sluggish response of the Vatican to the unfolding scandal.
Some sources argue that the negative public opinion was fueled in part by statements made to the media by various parties with differing agendas including lawyers for those suing the Church for damages resulting the alleged sexual abuse.
Such voices argue that equal or greater levels of child sexual abuse in other religious groups or in secular contexts such as the US public school system have been either ignored or given minimal coverage by mainstream media.
[108] Summarizing the key findings of the Report, Andrea Tornielli said: At the time of Theodore McCarrick’s appointment as Archbishop of Washington in 2000, the Holy See acted on the basis of partial and incomplete information.
What has now come to light are omissions, underestimations, and choices that later proved to be wrong, due in part to the fact that, during the assessment process requested by Rome at the time, those questioned did not always disclose all they knew.
As soon as the first report was received from a victim who was a minor at the time the abuse was committed, Pope Francis reacted promptly regarding the elderly cardinal, who had already retired as head of the archdiocese in 2006, first taking away his red hat and then dismissing him from the clerical state.
[151][152][153] Bernard Francis Law, Cardinal and Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, United States resigned after Church documents were revealed which suggested he had covered up sexual abuse committed by priests in his archdiocese.
In December 1984 auxiliary Bishop John M. D'Arcy wrote to Cardinal Law complaining about the reassignment of Geoghan to another Boston-area parish because of his "history of homosexual involvement with young boys.
[158] In 2013, a group calling itself Catholic Whistleblowers began to launch a public campaign to encourage improvement in implementing the zero-tolerance policies on child sexual abuse by clergy members.
[160] On December 21, 2018, another measure was signed into law requiring the New York Department of Health to notify victims of their legal rights as they navigate the medical and criminal justice systems.
[167] On December 29, 2019, it was revealed that numerous bishops across the United States withheld the names of hundreds of Catholic clergy who were accused of committing acts of sex abuse while serving in their Dioceses.
[5][6][7] On April 5, 2023, a report issued by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office stated that more than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused more than 600 children over the past 80 years.