UNITED STATES
ABC News
By RACHEL ZOLL, AP RELIGION REPORTER
NEW YORK — Sep 26, 2015
U.S. Catholic bishops have called the scandal over clergy sex abuse the worst crisis ever to hit the church in America.
To restore public trust, church leaders have overhauled how they handled the cases, paid multimillion-dollar settlements to victims and apologized repeatedly for failing to protect children. Still, the scandal persists. A handful of dioceses remain in bankruptcy court, one diocese faces criminal prosecution, and advocates for victims are pressing lawmakers in several states to lift time limits so more people who were molested can be compensated.
Here’s a look at how the abuse scandal played out in the United States:
HISTORY OF SCANDAL: Clergy sex abuse first drew public attention in the 1980s, with the case of a pedophile priest in the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana. Over the next two decades, scandals arose in several dioceses. But it wasn’t until 2002, when The Boston Globe persuaded a judge to unseal personnel files in the Archdiocese of Boston, that a full-blown national crisis erupted. Revelations about bishops moving guilty priests among parishes without warning parents or police caused an uproar so intense that every American diocese was compelled to take an inventory of how they had dealt with abusers and treated victims going back decades.
BISHOPS RESPOND: Under enormous public pressure, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted sweeping reforms in 2002 meant to safeguard children and restore trust in the church. The bishops created a streamlined process for removing any cleric who molested a child. Dioceses conducted background checks on priests and employees, trained teachers and volunteers on identifying abuse and set up programs meant to help victims. The bishops say they have spent tens of millions of dollars on child safety over the last decade. The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, along with other advocates, say bishops often still treat victims as enemies, and note most dioceses have not released the names of perpetrators, which advocates say would help give other victims the courage to come forward.
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