France is not the only one: the other cases in the world of pedophilia in the Catholic Church | Other countries that have reported child sexual abuse

Report published this week in France on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church joins other investigations who in recent years have sought to show the extent of the problem, as happened in the United States, Ireland or Australia, among others.

The Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase) noted that in France some 216,000 children have been abused since 1950.

One of the most high-profile cases was the investigation published in 2002 by the Boston Globe newspaper – which would later be adapted for theatrical use in the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight” – which determined that some 87 pedophile priests had acted in this archdiocese. for over 30 years.

The journalists who carried it out were able to show how the accused priests were transferred instead of being punished during the dissemination of the atrocities committed.

In August 2018, the Grand Jury of Pennsylvania, in United States, released an in-depth investigation in which it was determined that some 300 clergy had abused approximately 1,000 children over seven decades and exposed the cover-up plot within the Church.

A few months later, in February 2019, Pope Francis decided to expel former Washington Cardinal and Archbishop Theodore McCarrick from the priesthood.

Australia was another of the countries that decided to tackle what was going on within the Church through an independent commission, and in 2017, after five years of investigation, the government of that country presented the report in which some 4,000 complaints were received against about 2,000 religious.

At Ireland, various surveys published in the 2000s put the Catholic Church in check and determined that the total number of victims exceeded 14,500 children. In addition, a 2017 report on so-called mother and baby homes showed that the remains of 802 babies and children up to three years old were found between 1925 and 1961.

Another example is the case of Germany, where a 2018 report prepared by a consortium of researchers showed that between 1946 and 2014, victims of sexual abuse in this country reached 3,677, while priests denounced totaled 1,670.

In March of this year, an independent report commissioned by the German Church acknowledged abuses in the Cologne diocese perpetrated by 202 clergy or lay members between 1975 and 2018.

At ArgentinaThe most emblematic case is that of parish priest Julio César Grassi, sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2002. Although his sentence is final and ratified by the Supreme Court of the Nation, he continues to be a priest.

Likewise, on May 21, 2018, a court in Entre Ríos sentenced Justo José Ilarraz to 25 years in prison for abuse of five minors, a sentence that was ratified in second instance, but he also continues to be a priest.

Another of the most emblematic cases was that of the abuses committed at the Instituto Próvolo de Mendoza, because the victims were deaf children and some of the accused had already been denounced in Italy and in the city of La Plata.

A court ruled to sentence priests Horacio Corbacho and Nicola Corradi to 42 and 45 on November 25, 2019. Corradi, who was 83 at the time of sentencing, died in July this year.