WALTHAM (MA)
BishopAccountability.org
February 2019
To prepare for the Catholic church’s first global summit on child sexual abuse by clergy, attended by episcopal conference presidents, BishopAccountability.org has looked closely at how the conference presidents from eight of the world’s largest Catholic countries have handled the abuse crisis in their home countries.
Representing roughly half of the world’s Catholics, these eight prelates include:
an archbishop who estimates that only one percent of his country’s priests have abused children;
the head of a vast archdiocese who says he has dealt with only one abusive priest;
a cardinal who has never spoken publicly about the crisis;
a cardinal who has kept in ministry at least three accused priests.
We further examined the child protection guidelines and actions of the episcopal conferences in all eight countries. They range widely. Some conference websites, like those of France, Mexico, and the U.S., provide abundant information: how to report, the process for handling accusations, advice on prevention. It’s a challenge for the visitor to discern which documents are marketing materials and which are canonically binding. At the other extreme are the episcopal conferences of Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On their websites, the crisis is invisible, and no guidelines can be located.
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