Members of children’s rights organizations protest against cases of clerical child abuse in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on May 25, 2023.
Fernando Cartagena/AFP via Getty Images
Public outrage over alleged abuse has been muted in much of Latin America for years, partly because the church remains one of the region’s most powerful institutions – but that may be changing.
Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges the crowd during an audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Oct.24, 2007. A January 2022 report faulted his handling of several sex abuse cases.
AP Photo/Plinio Lepri
Pope Benedict XVI’s many years of wrestling with the abuse crisis highlight the Catholic Church’s broader challenges addressing it.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI sits in St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 8, 2015. A long-awaited report on sexual abuse faulted his handling of four cases.
AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
A German report accused retired Pope Benedict XVI of mishandling several cases of sexual abuse in the 1970s and 1980s. Here are a few of our related articles on the Catholic Church’s crisis.
A still from the Netflix series “Midnight Mass.”
Eike Schroter/Netflix
A scholar of religion in film explains the varied representation of Catholicism in horror. In some films, it is used in the fight against evil, while others show the Church itself as evil.
Each local congregation of the Southern Baptist Convention is autonomous and self-governing. Disagreements take place frequently.
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Baptists believe that each person can have a personal relationship with God. This theology, a scholar writes, has also contributed to disagreements within the denomination since the 17th century.
The pope can order religious investigations that can allow the Vatican to swiftly take action.
Giuseppe Lami/Pool Photo via AP
Early Christians were urged to ‘supervise’ one another. In the present times, that theology is often used by the Vatican for a religious investigation a known as the apostolic visitation.
Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, at a news conference on Nov. 5, 2018, in Cheektowaga, New York.
AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
Seven US bishops have been removed for covering up clergy sexual abuse since 2015 after decades of no accountability. An expert explains how Catholic movements and whistleblowers forced this change.
Pope Francis recently made it mandatory for clergy to report sexual abuse to church superiors.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
Pope Francis is trying to address gaps in the regulatory processes of the Catholic Church. But clergy can still decide whether, and to what degree, to share information.
Activists hold demonstrating against the church’s sacking of priests over alleged homosexuality.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Pope Francis has discouraged homosexual men from entering priesthood. Prior to the 12th century, even celebrated priests could write about same-sex desires and the church paid little attention.
Following the recent revelations about sex abuse, many Christian communities are facing a crisis of trust.
AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis
In the fourth century, Christian churches in North Africa faced a crisis of trust. A separate church of the Donatists emerged that lasted for centuries.
Cardinal Pell is the most senior Catholic cleric to be charged with child sex abuse.
AP Photo/Andy Brownbill
While Pope Francis has publicly acknowledged sexual abuse by clergy, the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church still makes it difficult to report and address cases of abuse.
Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington D.C., prays during the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2011.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File
In the Catholic understanding, priesthood is not simply a job that a someone can be fired from. Ordination is a deeply spiritual ceremony that is believed to transfer the power of the Holy Spirit.
Pope Francis sits during the traditional greetings to the Roman Curia at the Vatican in December 2018.
Filippo Monteforte/Pool Photo via AP
Pope Francis is meeting bishops for a global summit to discuss sexual abuse by clergy. Such a response, says an expert, is part of a past pattern, unlikely to bring a lasting change.
A woman holds up a quilt with photos of people who say they were abused as children by priests, in San Diego, 2007.
AP Photo/Denis Poroy
There is rich Catholic heritage of resistance. Catholic protesters have used powerful religious symbols, including vials of their own blood, as an extension of Christ’s blood, to demand change.
Member of the Coalition of Catholics and Survivors hold a protesting outside the Boston archbishop’s residence in 2003.
Jim Bourg/Reuters
While the problem of priestly abuse might be centuries old, its modern paper trail began after World War II, when ‘treatment centers’ appeared for rehabilitating priests. Many were send to New Mexico.
New priests being ordained during a ceremony led by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, when they take vows, including to remain celibate.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini