Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse Cases

A great short history of the sexual abuse controversies in the Catholic Church around the globe.

The crisis also has pit the moral legacies of two popes against each other: the towering and modernizing John Paul II, who nonetheless did little about sexual abuse; and his successor, Benedict XVI, who in recent years, at least, has taken the issue of pedophile priests more seriously.
But a wave of recent disclosures in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United States have led to increasing scrutiny of Benedict and his actions while a bishop in Germany and as a cardinal who later headed the Vatican’s bureaucracy.
The chapter of sexual abuse of children in the church’s history can be said to date from 1985, when the case of Rev. Gilbert Gauthe in Louisiana set off a huge public outcry. Mr. Gauthe was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for molesting at least 35 children.
More people came forward with charges of sexual abuse by priests, but it took until 1992 for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to spell out policy recommendations that advised bishops in dealing with such cases.

Click on the following for more details of this great NY Times story:  http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/roman_catholic_church_sex_abuse_cases/index.html