The following is a look back at the global timeline of clergy sex abuse cases.

1985: Father Thomas Doyle warned of sexual abuse by clergy members in a report, which was largely ignored at a U.S. conference of bishops.

That was the same year that Gilbert Gauthe became the first priest to gain national attention after he admitted to abusing 37 boys and pleaded guilty to 34 criminal counts, the New York Times reports. 

1998: Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër of Vienna gave up his duties in the church on allegations that he molested young boys, the BBC reports. 

2002: Clergy sex abuse erupts into a national crisis for the Roman Catholic Church following an investigation of the Archdiocese of Boston by The Boston Globe.

Among the cases the paper uncovered, it came to light that former priest John Geoghan sexually abused 130 people, mainly young boys, from 1962 to 1995, and that while church officials ordered treatment and transfers, they still kept him as a priest.

He was found guilty of charges related to the molestations and died a year later in prison.

Cardinal Bernard Law, who admitted to receiving a letter in 1984 about the allegations against Geoghan, ended up resigning as archbishop of Boston.

September 2003: A grand jury impaneled by the Philadelphia district attorney's office returns the results of its investigation of the Philadelphia Archdiocese. Relying in part on previously secret church documents, the grand jury report describes a "concerted campaign" by church leaders to cover up abuse and transfer accused priests to other parishes. It documents child sexual abuse by at least 63 priests and reveals hundreds of child victims. It recommends changes in how the diocese operates and handles allegations.

2004: The John Jay College of Criminal Justice compiled a report in which more than 4,000 priests were accused of sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002, CNN reports. That is about 4 percent of the priests who served in that time. 

July 2004: The Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., became the first diocese to seek bankruptcy protection while facing sexual abuse claims.

September 2005: A judge unseals the Philadelphia grand jury report.

2009: In Ireland, a government-commissioned report concluded that the Archdiocese of Dublin covered up child sexual abuse by clergy, naming 11 priests who pleaded guilty or were convicted and highlighted 35 other cases, though it used pseudonyms for those clergy members, according to CNN. 

2010: Allegations of sexual abuse erupted worldwide in countries like Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Brazil, showing the widespread nature of the abuse in the Catholic Church.

2011: Investigators in Philadelphia found the widespread clergy sexual abuse and concealment by church officials was going on here in Pennsylvania, too.

In addition to the removal of numerous priests, Monsignor William Lynn became the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic Church official to be convicted in a child sex abuse scandal.

His original child-endangerment conviction has been overturned, though, and he is facing retrial.

In the Netherlands, a Commission of Inquiry learned that thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in the Dutch Roman Catholic Church over six decades with 800 possible perpetrators, the New York Times reports. 

In May, John Jay College releases "The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010."

February 2012: Monsignor William Lynn is arrested. Lynn is the most senior U.S. official in the church to be tried in relation to abuse allegations, and the first to be charged with endangering children for allegedly failing to remove accused predators or report them to law enforcement. Lynn is convicted in June 2012, but his conviction is overturned in late 2013 and he's released after serving 18 months in prison. A new trial is ordered by Superior Court.

2014: In the Dominican Republic, former Vatican ambassador Jozef Wesolowski was found guilty of sexual abuse of minors by a Vatican tribunal.

He was the highest-ranking Catholic official arrested in such a case. He died the following year before he could be put on trial, the Washington Post reported. 

A study commissioned the same year by the Catholic Church found more than 4,000 priests have faced sexual abuse allegations in the last 50 years. These cases involved more than 10,000 children, mostly boys.

The church spent more than $2 billion in settlements, therapy for victims and attorneys' fees.

In July, Pope Francis met with abuse victims.

2016: A grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania found widespread abuse involving at least 50 priests and religious leaders, this time in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

It uncovered the systemic abuse of thousands of children over the course of decades. One priest in particular, Monsignor Francis B. McCaa, was labeled "a monster" for groping and fondling at least 15 boys.

July 2016: Flooded with calls alleging past child sexual abuse at other Pennsylvania dioceses, the state attorney general begins a grand jury investigation into the dioceses of Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton.

July 2017: The grand jury probe yields charges against a retired priest, John Thomas Sweeney, of the Greensburg Diocese. The victim had come forward after watching the movie "Spotlight" to say he'd been molested 25 years ago.

2017: In Australia, Cardinal George Pell, who serves as a top advisor for Pope Francis, was charged with multiple historical sexual assault counts. He maintains his innocence, saying the charges are false, according to CNN.

This came the same year as a commission that found 7 percent of Australian priests, starting in 1950, were accused of abusing children.

April 2018: The Erie Diocese releases the names of three dozen living and deceased clergy members and nearly 20 lay people who have faced credible allegations of sexual abuse or sexual misconduct involving minors. The list also includes the current whereabouts of those accused and the sanctions taken by the church. The diocese adds an additional 13 names to the list in two later disclosures.

May 2018: The attorney general's office charges a priest from the Erie Diocese with sexually abusing at least two boys, one of whom alleges the Rev. David Poulson molested him repeatedly while he served as an altar boy and then made him confess the abuse.

June 5, 2018: The judge supervising the grand jury orders the public release of its report. The judge says the panel has heard from dozens of witnesses and reviewed more than a half-million pages of internal church documents.

June 20, 2018: The state Supreme Court puts a hold on the report's release, explaining several days later that "many individuals" named in the report had filed challenges.

July 2, 2018: The attorney general's office files a sealed legal action seeking to lift the high court's stay. Media groups, including the AP, also go to court to seek the report's public release.

July 27, 2018: The Supreme Court orders the report to be released, saying it identifies more than 300 "predator priests." The justices say the report will initially be released without the names of priests and others who have challenged the findings.

July 31: Sweeney pleads guilty to reduced charges of indecent assault. He faces up to five years in prison.

Aug. 1, 2018: The Harrisburg Diocese identifies 71 priests and other members of the church who had been accused of child sex abuse and says the names of bishops who led the church for 70 years will be stripped from church properties.

Aug. 3, 2018: A court filing excerpts the grand jury report to come. The filing says the grand jury concluded that victims were "brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institutions above all." Erie Bishop Donald Trautman drops his challenge to the report's publication in its current form after prosecutors agree some of its broad claims were not specifically directed at him.

Aug. 4:, 2018 The bishop of the Pittsburgh Diocese says he will release the names of any members of his clergy who are accused in the grand jury report.