A moral panic surfaced in early 2002. It
alleges widespread child and youth sexual abuse by priests and at least one
bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. It also alleges a systematic
policy of cover-ups that goes back decades. U.S. accusations of clergy abuse and
cover-ups have concentrated on Cardinal Bernard Francis Law of Boston, MA. He
and a group of archbishops from other countries have been forced to resign,
including:
Ireland (Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell), .
Austria (Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Hermann Groer)
Wales (Archbishop of Cardiff, Franciscan John Ward)
Poland (Archbishop of Poznan, Juliusz Paetz) 1
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This section describes how the church's leaders, and laity reacted to the
crisis:
Michael Higgins, "Laying down the Law: The Catholic Church will
find inspired leadership in the aftermath of the Boston abuse scandals,
says theologian MICHAEL HIGGINS," The Globe and Mail, 2002-DEC-18,
Page A21.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has a section on its website
detailing its investigation of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the
Philadelphia, PA and Camden, NJ areas. See:
http://www.philly.com/ This requires a free registration. It
includes links to a 424 page Grand Jury report, a catalogue of sexually
abusive priests, letters from Cardinal Rigali, etc.
The Los Angeles Times has an eight page section which deals with the
suffering of abuse victims. See:
http://www.latimes.com/
