The most resounding cases of sexual abuse reported against the Catholic Church

In recent years, the Catholic Church was underlined by the large number of cases of sexual abuse of minors and adults by priests In the whole world. In this context, the dad Francisco modified this Tuesday, June 1, the ecclesiastical law for explicitly criminalize these abuses.

The new standards, published after 14 years of study, are part of the revised section of the penal code of the Vatican Code of Canon Law, the legal system that governs the Catholic Church of 1.3 billion members.

The most significant changes can be found in two articles, 1395 and 1398, which aim to correct the problems and deficits in the management of sexual abuse by the Church. The law recognizes that adults can also be victims priests who abuse their authority. On the other hand, he recalls that the laity who exercise ecclesiastical work can be punished for having abused minors or adults.

The 5 heartbreaking testimonies at the Vatican summit on sexual abuse

The Vatican also criminalized the “grooming“Of minors or vulnerable adults by priests to encourage them to participate in pornographic material. It also aims to deal with responsibilities for omissions and negligence and to change certain rules that made it easier to ignore or cover up abuses.

This is the first time that the canon law It officially recognizes as criminal the method used by sex offenders to establish relationships with their victims, with gifts and other accolades, and then sexually exploit them, note international religious affairs analysts.

In any case, during the last decades, hundreds of cases of sexual abuse have been known around the world:

The 4 most resounding cases of sexual abuse of the Argentine Catholic Church

The first is that of the priest Julio Cesar Grassi, sentenced to 15 years in prison for aggravated sexual abuse and the corruption of minors in 2009. Grassi was sentenced to this sentence for having sexually abused the said minor “Gabriel“, who was in charge of Happy Children Foundation which was located in the city of Hurlingham in Buenos Aires and was headed by the priest, in a process that lasted 11 years, since October 2002, when the case was revealed by a televised investigation.

The other cases are those which occurred in the Antonio Provolo Institute in Mendoza, which began its legal proceedings in November 2016 and has more than 20 complaints for acts of physical, psychological and sexual violence by priests, nuns and administrative staff of the Institute, systematically perpetrated against girls, boys and adolescents who are deaf or hard of hearing who attended the institution between 2005 and 2016.

Another case was that of the priest Justo José Ilarraz, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for abuse and corruption of minors in Entre Ríos by a court of first instance on May 21, 2018, a sentence subsequently confirmed by the Criminal Cassation Chamber of this province on March 7, 2019. The charge against the priest was aggravated by being the responsible for educating victims in five of the seven reported cases.

USA: Theodore McCarrick case and the one revealed by the reporters of the Boston Globe Spotlight

In the United States, Pope Francis in February 2019 abolished the excardenal estadounidense Theodore McCarrick, of 88 years old, accused of sexual assault almost half a century ago. It was the first time that a cardinal had been “reduced to a lay state” for charges of this type.

In 2018, an investigation by the public prosecutor’s office Pennsylvania discovered sexual abuse, covered by the catholic church in this state, perpetrated by more than 300 “predatory priests” against at least a thousand children. The case forced the former Archbishop of Pittsburgh to resign, Donald wuerl.

But perhaps the most iconic case is Boston, which ended with a film titled Projector -as the group of journalists who revealed the fact- and won the Oscar for best film in 2015. In the 2000s, according to research by Boston Globe, the hierarchy of the diocese, and in particular the former archbishop Bernard Law, systematically covered sexual abuse of around 90 priests. Law, a refugee in the Vatican after resigning from the archdiocese, died in 2017, according to the French agency AFP.

The The American Church has received reports of more than 18,500 victims of sexual abuse by more than 6,700 clergy between 1950 and 2016, according to Bishop-accountability.org.

Chile: Pope Francis defended bishop accused of sexual abuse, then backed down

During his trip to Chile in January 2018, the Pope Francis initially defended Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, suspected of having concealed the sexual crimes of an old priest.

So reversed e invited some of the victims to Rome and he summoned all the Chilean bishops, who then tendered their resignation en bloc and some were accepted. In October 2018, the Chilean justice he ordered the church to pay 450 million pesos ($ 671,000) in compensation to three victims.

Australia: two cases of convicted priests, but the decision was later overturned

In Australia, the cardinal Georges pell was sentenced in 2019 to six years in prison for rape and sexual assault of two altar boys in 1996 and 1997; His conviction, upheld on appeal, was later overturned by the High Court of Australia, which acquitted him in 2020 for the benefit of the doubt.

In May 2018, the Australian Archbishop Philip Wilson was convicted of concealing assaults committed in the 1970s by a priest. His conviction was overturned on appeal in December 2018.

Germany: alarming data on ecclesiastical sexual abuse

In Germany, since 2010, hundreds of cases of sexual abuse of minors in religious institutions have been revealed, including in the The elite Canisio College in Berlin. In 2017, a survey found that at least 547 children of the Catholic Choir of Regensburg they were allegedly subjected to abuse, including rape, between 1945 and the early 1990s.

In 2018, a report by a consortium of researchers found that at least 3,677 children were victims of sexual abuse between 1946 and 2014 by 1,670 clergymen. The most have never been punished.

In March 2021, an independent report commissioned by the German church identified 314 minors victims of sexual abuse by 202 members of the clergy or lay people between 1975 and 2018 in the diocese of Cologne.

Ireland: accusations of more than 14,000 abuses

In Ireland during the 2000s, allegations of sexual abuse against 14,500 children involved religious institutions. Several bishops and priests accused of covering up abuses have been punished.

In 2018, the Pope met among others a victim of the priest Tony walsh, What he sexually abused children for nearly two decades before being deported and jailed.

Poland: Church admitted nearly 400 abusive priests

In Poland in 2019, the church admitted nearly 400 clergy sexually assaulted children over the past three decades.

France: abuse of some 70 young scouts

In France, the cardinal Philippe barbarin was sentenced at first instance, in 2019, to six months suspended prison sentence for failing to report sexual assaults on minors committed by the priest Bernard Preynat, Some 70 young scouts between 1986 and 1991.

the the court acquitted him on appeal in 2020 then dismissed in April 2021 the appeal of the civil parties. However, the The Pope accepted his resignation. For his part, Bernard Preynat was sentenced in 2020 to five years in prison.

OF