Wiki: Catholic sex abuse cases

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Clerical sexual deviancy allegations have been made against a variety of religious groups including but not exclusively Roman Catholic priests, monks, and nuns. An estimated 0.2% of Roman Catholic priests have been proven to be abusers.[1]

Some incidents involved diocesan priests and members of the various Roman Catholic religious orders, with reports coming from the United States and Ireland. Cases involved seminaries, schools, orphanages and other institutions (such as the Irish industrial schools) 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. Hamilton says that the Roman Catholic Church is one of the most vocal adversaries to legislative reform that would protect children. [2]

The John Jay Report,[3] commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, found accusations against 4,392 priests in the USA, equalling about 4% of all U.S. priests between 1950 and 2002. Hamilton, a Catholic critic, states that 4% of all sexual abuse in the United States was caused by Catholic priests.[4] Figures supplied by the Catholic League promote the view that abuse statistics in the Catholic Church are similar to abuse in other institutions such as the preliminary estimate of education abuse statistics compiled by the U. S. Department of Education.[5][6][7]

During a recent visit to the United States Pope Benedict admitted that he is "deeply ashamed" of the clergy sex abuse scandal that has devastated the American church. The American Catholic Church has paid out $2 billion in abuse costs since 1950.

Benedict pledged that paedophiles would not be priests in the Catholic Church.[8]

原文網址：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_sex_abuse_cases