In March 2002, a Polish archbishop, friend and former personal assistant to the pope, resigned amid allegations of sexual abuse. In Australia, 51 priests were convicted of child abuse between 1992 and 2003. In England, 21 priests were convicted of sexual harassment between 1995 and 2002. In Ireland, taxpayers contributed about one-fifth of the $500 million to pay claims against the Church in cases of abuse involving more than three thousand victims over 30 years. There have been hundreds of resignations, layoffs or monetary agreements in many countries, particularly in Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Poland and the United States. One of the most notorious cases to make national and international headlines involved a priest named John Geoghan. More than 130 men reported being abused by Geoghan as children; The cases of abuse have spanned more than 30 years. The priest was eventually sentenced to nine years in prison for child abuse. What made this story a national and Catholic institutional scandal was the revelation that the Bishop of Geoghan, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, was aware of the allegations against Geoghan, but had tacitly assigned him to a number of parishes. On several occasions, Cardinal Law has even made secret financial settlements of established or confirmed claims. The cardinal resigned from his post after the revelations.
Although these revelations of priests abusing children have drawn attention to the issue, the scale of child sexual abuse extends beyond the Catholic Church. Society is just beginning to understand its many dimensions, and the legal line is being tightened to protect children`s rights. For several years, numerous accusations of child abuse and other allegations of sexual abuse or irregularities were made against members of the Roman Catholic clergy. These cases have been at various stages for some time, but since the late 1990s the extent of the problem has become more widely known. In 2003, it was customary to regularly hear a report from a priest who had resigned or been removed from office or censured by his bishop. These scandals originated in the United States, but have spread to many other countries around the world. Few crimes are more despised than child sexual abuse, and few are as poorly understood in terms of the number of crimes committed, the proportion of the population committing crimes, and the risk of recidivism. One reason for this is that sexual crimes against children and adolescents are likely to be grossly underreported. This hypothesis is supported by reports of sexual offenders and child victims of sexual abuse.
Offenders generally report fewer cases of child abuse than they are ultimately convicted of. And children are often reluctant to report an incident because they are ashamed or fear reprisal. The Boston case opened the floodgates to hundreds of similar cases in a dozen states. When asked, similar stories of child or other sexual abuse and financial cover-ups consumed the financial resources of many parishes. The Church has already allocated $30 million to John Geoghan`s victims alone. In Texas, the Diocese of Dallas paid $31 million to 11 plaintiffs after a Dallas priest, Rudolph Kos, was convicted of seven counts. In New Mexico, the Diocese of Santa Fe paid $50 million to the victims of 20 priests. In Bridgeport, Connecticut, the diocese settled a multimillion-dollar civil case against six priests. And in Santa Rosa, California, four plaintiffs alleging clergy sexual abuse received $1.6 million. In most cases that have led to significant rewards, the Catholic Church itself has been accused of protecting priests it knew were abusing children.
Regardless of the terminology, it is illegal for an adult to touch a child`s body part with “obscene and lascivious” intent. Generally, consent is not a matter of consideration and is not available as a defence to a charge of child abuse. Even in cases where it can be proven that the minor victim was a willing participant, an inappropriate sexual act or touching is still a crime because children cannot legally consent. Criminal penalties for those convicted of child abuse are severe. Child abuse is a crime that involves a series of indecent or sexual activities between an adult and a child, usually under the age of 14.