| Cases Of Child Sexual Abuse In The Roman Catholic Church |
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The Roman Catholic sex abuse cases are a series of accusations of Child Sexual Abuse and related church cover-ups made against Roman Catholic Priests . The incidents involved diocesan priests and members of the various Roman Catholic Religious Order s, with reports coming from the United States and Ireland . Cases involved Seminaries , Schools and Orphanages where children were in the care of clergy. Criticism of the Church and its leadership focused on the failure to act upon information, and often to move priests who had received complaints from church to church in order to protect them. Some allegations have led to successful prosecutions of the accused, as well as civil cases settling for millions of dollars. One book publicizing the abuse stated that the "overwhelming majority" of the abused children were male.George Weigel, ''The Courage To Be Catholic'' (Basic Books, 2002), ISBN 0-465-09261-6 p47 There had been charges that a minority of the clergy had been practicing such behavior for decades, alleging that a "'s Apostolic Constitution '' Sacramentum Poenitentiae '' in 1741. The , found accusations against 4,392 priests in the USA, equalling about 4% of all U.S. priests. Figures supplied by the Catholic League , and the U. S. Department of Education suggest that the abuse figures in the Catholic Church are similar to abuse in other institutions such as education.http://www.catholicleague.org/research/abuse_in_social_context.htmhttp://www.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/misconductreview/report.pdfhttp://bul.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/90/4/343.pdf Charol Shakeshaft, "Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature," U.S. Department of Education, 2004-JUN SEXUAL ABUSE Clergymen, generally trusted by Laity , had largely unrestricted contact with people through Parish links with families, seminaries and other institutions run by religious orders such as, regular and reform schools, orphanages, hospitals, and social work organisations. Although sexual abuse by priests was of primary concern to the public, media reports during the height of the scandal revealed a number of examples of laity being involved in abuse at these institutions. The clergy were involved in every aspect of the lives of the families of their communities, from baptising the young to the weekly celebration of Mass, giving children First Communion to marrying couples and being the celebrant of their funerals. Apart from direct family connections, many Catholic families sent their children to Catholic schools, where priests taught as teachers or visited regularly as the local parish priest or curate. Participation in the Catholic faith involved a close association with, and proximity to, priests. While the vast majority of priests are thought never to have abused any children (99.8%),Philip Jenkins, ''Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis'' (Oxford University Press, 2001). ISBN 0-19-514597-6 the small minority of priests who are known to have committed offenses had easy access to children. One of the worst examples of a clergyman using his links with families to facilitate sex abuse occurred in Ireland , where one priest &2 systematically raped and sexually abused hundreds of boys between 1945 and 1990. The scandal over the Fr. Brendan Smyth case, and the related Obstruction Of Justice by the Norbertine Order caused immense damage to the credibility of the Catholic church in Ireland. This was also seen in other cases, such as that of Fr. Jim Grennan , a parish priest, who abused children as they prepared for First Communion , and Fr. Sean Fortune , who committed Suicide before his trial for the rape of children. The abuse by Grennan and others in the Diocese Of Ferns in south-east Ireland led to the resignation of the local bishop, Brendan Comiskey , while similar scandals in the Archdiocese of Dublin severely damaged the reputation of its archbishop, Cardinal Connell . Although there were other social factors at play, some have argued that the ten-year drop in the percentage of Irish people attending weekly Mass (from 63% to 48%) was related to these events. Inquiries have established the existence of abuse in institutions, and a failure by those responsible for running and overseeing the institutions when confronted with evidence of abuse to act in the best interests of the victims, or in accordance with the criminal law in their jurisdiction. Governmental institutions have also been heavily criticised for neglecting to adequately ensure that young people placed in those institutions by agents of the state were properly looked after. Some of the most serious allegations of abuse were made against clergy who either worked in the institutions, or who were allowed unlimited visitation rights and access to young people. As with the clergy in parishes, many allegations have resulted in criminal convictions of the abusers. In Canada the Mount Cashel Orphanage scandal in the province of Newfoundland And Labrador and the Duplessis Orphans in the province of Quebec were of great public concern. POLICIES Abusers moved to different locations Some bishops have been heavily criticized for moving offending priests from parish to parish rather than seeking to have them stripped of their faculties. Many dioceses submitted accused priests for intensive psychotherapeutic treatment and assessment, with the priests only resuming pastoral duties when the bishop was advised by the treating psychologists or psychiatrists that it was safe for them to be so assigned. Critics have also condemned bishops for acting as business managers who viewed the issue as a disciplinary and medical matter for the priest and were concerned about secrecy for optimal financial management rather than the interests of the victims. |
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