On October 30th last, The Irish Times Rome Correspondent Paddy Agnew reported that Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, was among senior Vatican prelates who, appeared to suggest the issue [of clerical child sex abuse] was of concern only to the English-speaking world".
The Cardinal's implication was clear. Clerical child sex abuse is not so much a Catholic Church problem as it is symptomatic of a sickness particular to certain societies.
That these same English-speaking societies are among the most open, and democratic in the world, and each with a strong tradition of an independent press, seemed to carry little weight with the cardinal. Indeed, there can be little doubt that a look at the Vatican's own records, not least in the Congregation for the Clergy, would disclose that clerical child sex abuse is not confined by either language or geography.
According to information collated from media around the world by the American Catholics For a Free Choice (CFFC) group, there have been over 5,000 cases of clerical child abuse involving Catholic clergy and religious reported since 1995.
CFFC insists its information is by no means "a comprehensive or cumulative assessment" of clerical child abuse around the world, and this is clear from its scanty information on Ireland and our neighbours [supplemented below].
However, from the information available to it, it found that clerical child sex abuse has been reported in "at least 20 countries" [just eight of which are English-speaking]. Reports from two African sources and Spain have also been added below.
Argentina: In January 2001 a priest was arrested following allegations that he raped residents of a home for adolescent boys. Another priest accused of molesting several young girls was moved to another city where he is currently working in a parish.
Australia: Fifty one priests have been sentenced over the past nine years. Two hundred and sixty former residents of Catholic-run institutions have reported abuse. The religious who ran the institutions have offered almost $4 million in out-of-court settlements. One priest pleaded guilty to 46 charges of sex abuse involving 21 teenagers. One victim has claimed a priest's bishop offered him money in 1993 to keep silent. The diocese of Melbourne is believed to have paid out millions of Australian dollars to 80 victims by 21 priests between 1996 and 1999.
Austria: Cardinal Gröer of Vienna resigned in 1998 following allegations of his sexual abuse of seminarians in 1970. There had been other allegations against him. In May this year, a Viennese lawyer said he planned a class action against the Church in Austria on behalf of a number of victims.
Belgium: In 1998 a criminal court ordered Cardinal Daneels and a local bishop to pay damages to a victim of clerical child sex abuse, recognising their responsibility as superiors for a priest's actions.
Brazil: Early this year Brazilian newspapers carried reports of 12 priests who sexually abused over 40 children between 1985 and January last. The civil authorities there have recently denounced Bishop Aldo Pagotto for attempting to coerce 21 victims of one priest to change their testimony about what they had suffered.
Canada: Abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage, run by Christian Brothers, led to the conviction of 11 lay Brothers for the abuse of more than 40 children. There are currently 43 outstanding claims of abuse at the orphanage. Two hundred charges were brought against 30 religious and other employees of two Catholic schools in Ontario in 1990. That same year a man was ordained and assigned to parish duties despite a criminal record and past prison sentence for child abuse in the 1960s. .
Chile: A priest accused of raping a 13-year-old girl last year was transferred out of the country by Church authorities to avoid prosecution by the State. He was extradited back to Chile by order of the Supreme Court.
China: Cardinal Baptist Wu Cheng-chung acknowledged earlier this year that children have been abused by priests in Hong Kong. The Church there is also fighting attempts by the civil authorities to force it to disclose information about six priests accused of molesting minors.
Colombia: A priest was arrested last year for molesting boys. Ten years earlier the same priest faced 60 counts of child sex abuse for offences in New York in the 1980s. In the early 1990s he was accused of abusing 18 boys in Venezuela. When arrested in Colombia he was living with a teenager.
England: Between 1995 and 1999, 21 priests were convicted of sexual molestation. Eight former staff at Stonyhurst College and St Mary's Hall [an elementary school] have been charged with assaulting students in the 1970s and 1980s. One priest was jailed in 1996 after confessing to sexually abusing several children.
France: Thirty priests have been convicted of child sex abuse since 1995. Bishop Pierre Pican was convicted in 2001 of concealing evidence of the abuse of 11 children by one priest between 1996 and 1998. The priest was sentenced to 18 years. The Bishop received a three-month suspended sentence.
Germany: Thirteen clergy have been convicted of child sex abuse in the past eight years. Last July another priest came under investigation for abuse dating to 1998.
Ireland: As of October 2000, 48 religious [priests, Brothers, former Brothers] on the island had been convicted of clerical child sex abuse and a further 20 faced charges. [The figures have not been updated since the Catholic Communications Office moved from Booterstown, in Dublin, to Maynooth in 2002].
Last January the Conference of Religious of Ireland concluded an agreement with the Government under which 18 religious orders will contribute €128 million to a State redress scheme for victims of institutional abuse. It is estimated that as many as 3,000 victims will be involved in this scheme.
Mexico: Last April, Cardinal Norberto Rivera admitted clerical child sex abuse is a problem. In 1997 a priest was accused of abusing almost 60 children. The Church authorities said he had "health problems". It is claimed hundreds of priests have been treated at Church-run centres for behavioural problems, including the sex abuse of children, and that some at least have been subsequently returned to work with children.
In 1997 Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, was accused by nine men of sexual abuse when they were children in the 1940s to the 1960s. The case was said to have been reported to the Vatican in 1978.
New Zealand: Last June the Church authorities there acknowledged 38 substantiated complaints of sex abuse against priests and brothers since the 1950s. Since 1990 nine of them have been convicted. One religious order has paid out NZ $300,000 to victims of child sex abuse in a boarding school during the 1960s and 1970s.
Nigeria: Pope John Paul toldNigerian bishops visiting him in Rome last April that "behaviour which might give scandal must be carefully avoided, and you yourselves must diligently investigate accusations of any such behaviour, taking firm steps to correct it where it is found to exist".
Philippines: At least 200 of the country's priests have been investigated for sex abuse since the 1980s.
Poland: Earlier this year Archbishop Juliusz Paetz of Poznan resigned after being accused publicly of sexually molesting seminarians.
Scotland: In 1999 reports disclose sexual misconduct charges against five priests involving several children and teenagers.
South Africa: Earlier this year the church leadership acknowledged a problem where clerical child sex abuse was concerned.
Spain: Last March the Spanish newspaper El Pais denounced the fact that the Spanish media was largely silent on sex offences against children, especially if the cases concerned (former) officials or church members. It cited the example of a mother fighting for five years to obtain an inquiry into the abuse of her daughter by a Catholic priest and former member of the Church Court.
Tanzania: Last July the chairman of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa, Archbishop Josaphat Louis Lebulu, said "this [clerical child sex abuse] is not just an American problem . . . we have not been open enough to acknowledge the situation".
United States: Since the 1960s, 866 priests have been accused of child sex abuse. In June of this year investigators disclosed that 111 bishops, two thirds of those in the country, had protected priests and other Church employees, volunteers accused of child abuse.
It seems hardly believable that few if any cases of clerical child sex abuse have been reported in Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, or Italy.
