Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal

In the late 20th century, and especially at the turn of the 21st, the Catholic Church in several countries was confronted with a series of allegations concerning sexual abuse of children under the legal age of consent ¹ by Catholic clergy and religious.

Episcopal resignations

• Bernard Cardinal Law, the Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, United States had come under enormous public pressure to resign after Church documents suggested he had covered up sexual abuse committed by priests in his archdiocese. There is, for example, the priest John Geoghan, who was shifted from one parish to another despite knowledge of his depredations by Cardinal Law. The Vatican announced on December 13, 2002 that Pope John Paul II had accepted Law's resignation as Archbishop and reassigned him to an administrative position in the Roman Curia and named him archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Cardinal Law later presided at one of the Pope's funeral masses.

:Bishop Séan P. O'Malley, the Capuchin friar who replaced Law as archbishop, was forced to sell a good deal of valuable real estate and to close a number of churches in order to pay $120,000,000 in claims against the archdiocese.

Related Topics:
Séan P. O'Malley - Capuchin friar

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Bishop Brendan Comiskey, Bishop of Ferns resigned under similar pressure.
• Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër had to resign from his post as Archbishop of Vienna over allegations of sexual abuse in 1995.
• Two Bishops of Palm Beach, Florida have resigned due child abuse allegations, Joseph Keith Symons, who was replaced by Anthony O'Connell, who also resigned. O'Connell was replaced by O'Malley, who had earlier been appointed Bishop of Fall River following an abuse scandal, and would later replace Cardinal Law in Boston.