Catholic Church sexual abuse cases by country


This page documents Catholic Church sex abuse cases by country. The Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Europe has been documented by cases in several dioceses in European nations. Investigation and widespread reporting were conducted in the early 21st century related to dioceses in the United States of America; several American dioceses were bankrupted by settlement of civil lawsuits from victims. A significant number of cases have also been reported in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.
In 2001, lawsuits were filed in the United States and Ireland, alleging that some priests had sexually abused minors and that their superiors had conspired to conceal and otherwise abet their criminal misconduct. In 2004, the John Jay Report tabulated a total of 4,392 priests and deacons in the U.S. against whom allegations of sexual abuse had been made. The numbers of reported abuse allegations and court cases has increased worldwide since then.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has asked for detailed information on the full extent of child abuse worldwide by priests, monks and nuns. It has also asked how the Holy See prevents abusers from contacting additional children and how the Holy See ensures that known crimes against children are reported to the police. In the past there were issues over the Church hierarchy failing to report abuse to law enforcement and allowing abusers further contact with children. 1 November 2013 was set as a deadline for receiving the information.

Prevalence

In a statement read by Archbishop Silvano Maria Tomasi in September 2009, the Holy See stated, "We know now that in the last 50 years somewhere between 1.5% and 5% of the Catholic clergy has been involved in sexual abuse cases", adding that this figure was comparable to that of other groups and denominations.
A Perspective on Clergy Sexual Abuse by Catholic Dr. Thomas Plante of the Catholic Santa Clara University and volunteer clinical associate professor at Stanford University states that "approximately 4% of priests during the past half century have had a sexual experience with a minor" which "is consistent with male clergy from other religious traditions and is significantly lower than the general adult male population which may double these numbers". Plante's article was based on a study done by John Jay College. It was compiled solely from numbers provided by leaders of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which paid John Jay College to do the study. According to an article reported in Newsweek magazine, the figure for adult abuse of children in the Catholic Church is similar to that in the rest of the adult population.
After widespread publicity about the abuse, in 2013 Barbara Blaine, of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, stated, "We are confident that the ICC will see sufficient evidence that high ranking Catholic officials are still knowingly enabling predators to harm and endanger children across the world, while concealing these heinous crimes even more effectively." A group had filed charges in the International Criminal Court against the Catholic Church for what it said was crimes against humanity because of its policy on this issue. The ICC refused to investigate. SNAP representatives note there most Catholics were found in the Third World, where child molestation is more easily concealed. They argued that it was necessary to guard against "the tempting assumption that the worst of this scandal is somehow behind us."

Africa

Kenya

In 2009 several people accused an Italian priest working in the country of sexual molestation. The Church assured them it was investigating the case, but that did not appear to happen. Kenyan police said they found no evidence and believed Sesana is innocent.
In 2010 a young woman alleged that a Catholic priest had raped her but the police and Church authorities had failed to follow up the allegations.
The 2011 Raidió Teilifís Éireann documentary "A Mission To Prey" publicised Kenya's clerical abuse cases, saying they should have been handled with more transparency. It was discovered that this program mistakenly alleged that Fr. Kevin Reynolds was an abuser, causing him to be removed from his home and his parish ministry. RTÉ has subsequently apologised for this programme and has stated that Fr. Reynolds was innocent of the charges stated. RTÉ has allowed continued access to this programme online, while upwards of 32 slander and libel cases are pending in reaction by alleged abusers.
In 2011 a Dutch bishop in Kenya was reported to be under probe over alleged sex abuse. He was alleged to have abused a minor 18 years before while serving as a priest in Ngong diocese. He was retired by the church.

Tanzania

;St Michael's Catholic Boarding School, Soni, Tanzania
A prominent United Kingdom member of the order, Fr Kit Cunningham, together with three other priests, were exposed after Cunningham's death as paedophiles.
While at Soni, Cunningham perpetrated sexual abuse that made the school, according to one pupil, "a loveless, violent and sad hellhole". Other pupils recall being photographed naked, hauled out of bed at night to have their genitals fondled, and other sexual abuse. Although known about by the Rosminians before Cunningham's death in 2010, the abuse was not reported by the media until 2011.
Formal action was launched by a group of former pupils who filed a civil suit at the civil court in Leicester, UK on 20 March 2013.
;Settlement
The audited financial statements for the year ending 5 April 2015 report under the heading “Legal and safeguarding related costs" that "Last year’s report referred to legal claims which had been brought against the Charity concerning the welfare of children between approximately 1940 and 1985. A settlement has now been reached in relation to these claims." The Charity was liable also for the claimants' legal fees. The matter has had a significant impact on the Charity's finances with payment of their legal and settlement costs amounting to a total GBP 1,746,523 for the year.

Asia

East Timor

Austria

;Archdiocese of Vienna
In 1995 Hans Hermann Cardinal Groer stepped down as head of the Catholic Church in Austria following accusations of sexual misconduct. In 1998 he left the country and lost the duties of a Cardinal. Nevertheless, he still retained the title of a Cardinal.
;Kremsmuenster Abbey
In March 2010, several monks were suspended at Kremsmunster Abbey, located in the Upper Austria city of Kremsmunster, for severe allegations of sexual abuse and physical violence. The reported incidences ranged over a period from the 1970s until the late 1990s and had been subject to police investigation. In July 2013 an Austrian court found Kremsmuenster Abbey director Alfons Mandorfer guilty in 24 documented cases of child abuse and sexual violence. The now laicized priest, who was accused of committing “sexual acts of differing intensity” on the pupils between 1973 and 1993, was sentenced to twelve years in prison. By 2013, the school had paid approximately €700,000 in compensation.

Belgium

There have been several abuse cases in Belgium.
;Diocese of Antwerp
Former parish priest Bruno Vos of Nieuwmoer parish in Kalmthout was officially charged with rape of a minor by the Belgian judiciary. He was also alleged to possess child pornography.

Croatia

;Archdiocese of Zagreb
;Archdiocese of Rijeka
;Archdiocese of Zadar
In February 2019, Pope Francis alluded to the closure of a religious order due to the 'sexual slavery' of the nuns within it. Some sources identify the congregation he intended as a part of the Community of St. Jean. The Holy See's Press Office however claimed that "sexual manipulation had occurred within this women’s religious congregation, not actual sex slavery." On 3 June 2019, the French Catholic Church activated a sex abuse commission—made up of 22 legal professionals, doctors, historians, sociologists and theologians—which will obtain witness statements and deliver its conclusions by the end of 2020. In June 2020, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, which was established in June 2019, concluded that 3,000 children in France were sexually abused by Catholic clergy and officials since 1950 and that there was an average of 40 victims per year.
;Seine et Marne
In February 2010 Der Spiegel reported that more than 94 clerics and laymen have been suspected of sexual abuse since 1995. Thirty had been prosecuted because legal time constraints related to the occurrence of alleged crimes prevented prosecution of older cases. In 2017, it was further reported that at least 547 members of the prestigious Domspatzen choir in Regensburg were physically or sexually abused between 1945 and 1992.
In September 2018 a report was leaked that reported that 3,677 children in Germany, mostly boys under age 13, were sexually abused by Catholic clergy members over the past seven decades". About 1,670 church workers, or 4.4% of the clergy, had been involved in the abuse which is "shocking and probably just the tip of the iceberg" according to Germany's Federal Justice Minister Katarina Barley The report was not fully independent of the church and likely understated the activity, as journalists have been forbidden from looking at church files which could contain more reports of abuse. The full report was officially released by the German Catholic Church on 25 September, and included an apology by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Bishop of Munich and Freising and head of the German Bishops’ Conference, and other German Bishops. The incidents were reported to have happened between the years 1946 and 2014. The report's author criticised the Church for denying him access to other Catholic institutions, including children's homes and schools, which could consequently not be included. It was also reported that local dioceses destroyed some files containing more reports of sex abuse. Some of the "predator priests" were transferred to other parishes in order to avoid scrutiny.

Ireland

In August 2018, a list was published which revealed that over 1,300 Catholic clergy in Ireland had been accused of sexual abuse, with 82 of them getting convicted.
;Archdiocese of Dublin
Several priests convicted of abusing children in the United States were Irish nationals, notably Patrick Colleary, Anthony O'Connell and Oliver O'Grady. One of the most widely known cases of sexual abuse in Ireland involved Brendan Smyth, who, between 1945 and 1989, sexually abused and assaulted 20 children in parishes in Belfast, Dublin and the United States.
;Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland
In May 2020, it was revealed that prior to the 2004 merger with the SAI which formed Scouting Ireland, Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland covered up sex abuse committed by people who served in the organization. In a period spanning decades, both the CBSI and SAI shielded 275 known or suspected predators who abused children after becoming aware of the reported acts of abuse. Scouting Ireland backed the findings of the report and issued an apology.
;Diocese of Ferns
The Ferns Inquiry 2005 – On 22 October 2005 a government-commissioned report compiled by a former Irish Supreme Court judge delivered an indictment of the handling of clerical sex abuse in the Irish diocese of Ferns.

Italy

Since 1995 the church established new procedures to receive reports of sexual abuse. Alleged victims can notify a central church institution, called Secretariaat Rooms-Katholiek Kerkgenootschap. The church made this change in response to charges of alleged cases of sexual abuse by religious members of the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1993, Father H.H.M. Jansen was denounced for sexual abuse during his activities as military pastor and as a faculty member of the seminary of Rolduc.
On 14 May 1998 damages of €56,800 were paid by the diocese of Rotterdam to the victim of sexual abuse by a diocesan priest; this was part of a settlement to avoid civil prosecution.
Father J. Ceelen, pastor of the parishes of Lieshout and of Mariahout, quit his post after allegations of sexual abuse on 1 September 2005.
In February 2010 Salesians were accused of sexual abuse in their juvenate Don Rua in 's-Heerenberg. Salesian bishop of Rotterdam van Luyn pleaded for a thorough investigation.
In 2011 the Deetman Commission, acting on the 2010 request of the Conference of Bishops and the Dutch Religious Conference, reported on its inquiry into abuse cases from 1945 to 2010 affecting children entrusted to the care of the church in the Netherlands.

Norway

, a former Catholic bishop in Trondheim, Norway, has admitted to sexually abusing an altar boy in the 1980s when he served as a priest there. Müller, who retired as bishop in 2009, said there were no other victims.

Poland

In 2013 a succession of child sex abuse scandals within the church, and the poor response by the church, became a matter of widespread public concern. The church resisted demands to pay compensation to victims. On September 27, 2018, however, Bishop Romuald Kamiński of the Diocese of Warsaw-Praga stated that Polish church leaders were working on a document, to be published later, on priestly sexual abuse of minors in Poland, and ways to prevent it. Cases were being evaluated by Warsaw courts, and the priests involved were banned from working with minors; three were suspended from all pastoral work. According to Archbishop Wojciech Polak, the head of Poland's Catholic Church, the document will include data on the scale of priestly sex abuse in Poland.
On October 8, 2018, a victims group mapped out 255 cases of alleged sex abuse in Poland.
Statistics were released on 14 April 2019, commissioned by the Episcopal Conference of Poland and with data from over 10,000 local parishes. It was found that from 1990 to mid-2018, abuse reports about 382 priests were made to the Church, with 625 children, mostly under 16, sexually abused by members of the Catholic clergy. There were opinions that the figures underestimated the extent of the problem, and failed to answer questions church officials had avoided for years. Marek Lisinski, the co-founder of Don't Be Afraid, which represents victims of clerical abuse, said "Tell us how hurt those children and how many times they were transferred to different parishes before you paid notice". The data were released a few weeks after Pope Francis had called for "an all-out battle against the abuse of minors". After pressure from the Pope, in the preceding years Poland's church had publicly apologized to abuse victims, and accepted the need to report those accused of such crimes. In earlier times clergy to whom sexual abuse of minors was reported were not required by their superiors to notify the police, but to investigate themselves, and if necessary inform the Holy See.
On May 11, 2019, Polak issued an apology on behalf of the entire Catholic Church in Poland. The same day, Tell No One, a documentary detailing accounts of sex abuse by Catholic church workers in Poland, went viral, obtaining 8.1 million viewers on YouTube by May 13. The film accused former Polish leader Lech Walesa's personal priest Franciszek Cybula, who is now deceased, of sexual abuse and noted that he transferred between parishes. confess to molesting many young girls. The film also alleges that Rev. Dariusz Olejniczak, a priest who was sentenced for molesting 7-year-old girls, was allowed to continue working with young people despite his conviction. On May 14, 2019, Poland's ruling Law and Justice party, which has long had an alliance with the nation's Catholic Bishops, agreed to increase penalties for child sex abuse by raising the maximum prison sentence from 12 years to 30 years and raising the age of consent from 15 to 16. Prosecutor and PiS lawmaker Stanislaw Piotrowicz, who heads the Polish Parliament's Justice Commission, has also been criticized for playing down the actions of a priest who was convicted for inappropriately touching and kissing young girls.
On May 16, 2020, Polak asked the Vatican to investigate sex abuse claims involving brothers Marek and Tomasz Sekielski. The two brothers released a popular YouTube documentary titled Hide and Seek, which detailed their allegations that they were molested a Polish Catholic priest. Polak expressed support towards the allegations, stating "The film... shows that protection standards for children and adolescents in the Church were not respected."
;Diocese of Kielce
In Tell No One a priest known as Father Jan A., who served the Diocese of Kielce in the village of Topola and whose case is being reviewed by the Holy See, confessed to molesting many young girls.
;Diocese of Opole
In 2018 the Bishop of Opole, Andrzej Czaja in a letter to the faithful read at all masses in the diocese on Sunday, October 7th, apologized to the victims and admitted that 6 priest from his diocese were found guilty of sexual abuse against minors.
;Archdiocese of Poznań
In March 2002 the Archbishop of Poznań, Juliusz Paetz, stepped down following accusations, which he denied, of sexually molesting young priests.
;Diocese of Płock
In early 2007 allegations surfaced that former Bishop Stanislaw Wielgus was aware that several priests in his former diocese of Płock were sexually abusing minors.
;Diocese of Warsaw-Praga
On September 27, 2018, Warsaw-Praga Bishop Romuald Kamiński apologized to those who had been victims of sexual abuse in his Diocese.

Slovenia

;Archdiocese of Ljubljana
;Diocese of Stockholm
One child was sexually abused by a priest several years in the late 1950s. When the child raised the issue at the time, the priest was protected and the abuse was kept quiet by the church. The victim finally reported the abuse to the Stockholm diocese in December 2005. The victim demanded a public apology from the church. In June 2007 Sweden's Catholic church made a public apology in two newspapers.

United Kingdom

Vatican

Holy See

On June 23, 2018, a Holy See tribunal convicted former diplomat Monsignor Carlo Capella for possessing child pornography while in the Holy See's U.S. nunciature and handed him a five-year prison sentence.
On December 9, 2019, lawyers brought a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Holy See, regarding an alleged cover up of abuse committed by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

North America

Canada

;Archdiocese of St. John's
In the 1990s, criminal proceedings began against members of the Christian Brothers in Newfoundland.

El Salvador

In November 2015, sex abuse scandals in El Salvador's sole non-military Catholic diocese, the Archdiocese of San Salvador, started coming to light when the Archdiocese's third highest ranking priest Jesus Delgado, who was also the biographer and personal secretary of the Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was dismissed by the Archdiocese after its investigation showed that he had molested a girl, now 42 years of age, when she was between the ages of 9 and 17. Due to the statute of limitations, Delgado could not face criminal charges. In December 2016, a canonical court convicted Delgado and two other El Salvador priests, Francisco Galvez and Antonio Molina, of committing acts of sex abuse between the years 1980 and 2000 and laicized them from the priesthood. In November 2019, the Archdiocese acknowledged sex abuse committed by a priest identified as Leopoldo Sosa Tolentino in 1994 and issued a public apology to his victim. Tolentino, who has made at least one public YouTube sermon, has been suspended from ministry and has begun the canonical trial process. It was also reported at this time that another El Salvador priest had been laicized in 2019 after pleading guilty to sex abuse in a Holy See trial and is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in a criminal trial.

Mexico

Fr. Marcial Maciel founded the Legion of Christ, a Catholic order of priests originating in Mexico. Nine former seminarians of his order accused Maciel of molestation. Maciel maintained his innocence of the accusations.

United States

;Archdiocese of Anchorage
In 2007, the Society of Jesus made a $50 million payout to over 100 Inuit who alleged that they had been sexually abused. The settlement did not require them to admit molesting Inuit children, but accusations involved 13 or 14 priests who allegedly molested these children for 30 years.
In 2008, the Diocese of Fairbanks, a co-defendant in the case, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, claiming inability to pay the 140 plaintiffs filing claims against the diocese for alleged sexual abuse by priests or church workers during this period.
;Archdiocese of Boston
Allegations of sexual misconduct by priests of the Archdiocese of Boston, and following revelations of a cover-up by the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, became known in 2004, causing Roman Catholics in other dioceses of the United States to investigate similar situations. Cardinal Law's actions prompted public scrutiny of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the steps taken in response to past and current allegations of sexual misconduct by priests. The events in the Archdiocese of Boston became a national scandal.
;Archdiocese of Chicago
Daniel McCormack, a self-confessed sexually abusive priest was sentenced to five years in prison for abusing five boys in 2001.
; Diocese of Crookston
Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was charged with molesting two teenage girls at a Catholic church in Greenbush, Minnesota, a small rural town near the Canada–United States border. The abuse occurred in 2004, and charges were filed in 2006 and amended in 2007. Without facing legal punishment, Jevapaul returned to his home diocese in Ootacamund, India, where today he works in the church's diocesan office. A Roseau County, Minnesota attorney is seeking to extradite the priest from India in a criminal case involving one of the girls.
The Archbishop of Madras, India has asked Jeyapaul to return to the US to face the charges. Jevapaul has said that he will not fight extradition if the US seeks it.
;Diocese of Davenport
On 10 October 2006, the Diocese of Davenport filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
;Archdiocese of Dubuque
In 2006 the Archdiocese settled a number of claims of sexual abuse, and the Archbishop offered a personal apology.
;Diocese of Fall River
Father James Porter was a Roman Catholic priest who was convicted of molesting 28 children; He admitted sexually abusing at least 100 of both sexes over a period of 30 years, starting in the 1960s. Bishop Sean O'Malley settled 101 abuse claims and initiated a zero-tolerance policy against sexual abuse. He also instituted one of the first comprehensive sexual abuse policies in the Roman Catholic Church.
;Diocese of Honolulu
Reverend Joseph Bukoski, III, SS.CC., Honolulu, Hawaii, a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary was canonically removed in 2003 as the pastor of Maria Lanakila Catholic Church in Lahaina by Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo for allegations relating to sexual improprieties some 30 years earlier. Fr. Bukoski issued a written public apology to his victim on 12 November 2005.
Reverend Mr. James "Ron" Gonsalves, Wailuku, Hawaii, Gonsalves the administrator of Saint Ann Roman Catholic Church in Waihee, Maui, pleaded guilty on 17 May 2006 to several counts of sexual assault on a 12-year-old male. Bishop Clarence Richard Silva has permanently withdrawn his faculties and has initiated laicization proceedings against Deacon Gonsalves with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
;Archdiocese of Los Angeles
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay out 60 million dollars to settle 45 lawsuits it still faces over 450 other pending cases. According to the Associated Press, 22 priests were involved in the settlement with cases going back as far as the 1930s. 20 million dollars of this was paid by the insurers of the archdiocese. The main administrative office of the archdiocese is due to be sold to cover the cost of these and future lawsuits. The archdiocese will settle about 500 cases for about $600 million.
;Diocese of Memphis
The Diocese of Memphis reached a $2 million settlement with a man who was abused as a boy by Father Juan Carlos Duran, a priest with a history of sexual misconduct with juveniles in St. Louis, Panama, and Bolivia.
;Archdiocese of Miami
Since 1966, the Archdiocese of Miami Insurance Programs have paid $26.1 million in settlement, legal, and counseling costs associated with sexual misconduct allegations made by minors involving priests, laity and religious brothers and sisters.
;Archdiocese of Milwaukee
A 2003 report on the sexual abuse of minors by clergy in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee revealed that allegations of sexually assaulting minors had been made against 58 ordained men. By early 2009, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee had spent approximately $26.5 million in attorney fees and settlements. Under Archbishop Timothy Dolan the archdiocese was able to avoid bankruptcy from lawsuits.
A Wisconsin priest, the Rev. Lawrence C Murphy, who taught at the former St. John School for the Deaf in the Milwaukee suburb of St. Francis, Wisconsin from 1950 to 1974, allegedly molested more than 200 deaf boys. Several U.S. bishops warned the Holy See that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church. Murphy was moved by then Milwaukee Archbishop William E Cousins to Superior, Wisconsin, a small city near Lake Superior, where he spent his final 24 years working with children in parishes, schools and a juvenile detention center. He died in 1998. As of March 2010, there were four outstanding lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in the case.
;Diocese of Oakland
In 1981, the former Rev. Stephen Kiesle was convicted for tying up and molesting two boys in a California church rectory. From 1981 to 1985, Bishop John Stephen Cummins, who oversaw Kiesle, contacted the Holy See about laicizing him. Then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, responded by letter that the case needed more time, as it was "necessary to consider the good of the Universal Church" and "the detriment that granting the dispensation" could provoke among the faithful. In 1987, the Holy See laicized Kiesle. The letter was widely regarded as evidence of Ratzinger's role in blocking the removal of pedophile priests. Holy See officials responded that that interpretation rested on a misreading of the letter, in which the issue was not whether Kiesle should be laicized but whether he should be granted the dispensation he had requested from the obligation of chastity. By refusing to grant such a dispensation right away in the Kiesle case, Ratzinger was actually being tough with an abuser, not lax.
;Archdiocese of Omaha
During his tenure as the Bishop of Helena, Montana, Archbishop Elden Francis Curtiss chose to reassign a priest who had been accused of pedophilia in 1959, later admitting that he had not properly examined the church's personnel file on the individual concerned. Curtiss faced similar criticism in 2001 in regard to a priest accused of accessing child pornography. Curtiss, it was alleged, had failed to bring the case to the attention of the authorities, and had chosen to send the priest for counseling and to reassign the priest, removing him from his high-school teaching position but reassigning him to a middle-school.
;Diocese of Orange, California
On 3 January 2005 Bishop Tod Brown of the Diocese of Orange apologized to 87 alleged victims of sexual abuse and announced a settlement of $100 million following two years of mediation.
;Diocese of Palm Beach
Joseph Keith Symons resigned as ordinary in 1998 after admitting he molested five boys while he was a pastor. Symons' successor, Anthony O'Connell, resigned in 2002, after admitting that he, too, had engaged in sexual abuse.
;Catholic Church in Pennsylvania
;Diocese of Peoria
Coadjutor Bishop John J. Myers of Peoria was among the two-thirds of sitting bishops and acting diocese administrators that the Dallas Morning News found had allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to continue working.
;Diocese of Phoenix
On 21 November 2005, Monsignor Dale Fushek of the Diocese of Phoenix was arrested and charged with 10 criminal misdemeanor counts related to alleged inappropriate sexual contact with teens and young adults.
;Archdiocese of Portland
The Archdiocese of Portland filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on 6 July 2004, hours before two abuse trials were set to begin. Portland became the first Catholic diocese to file for bankruptcy. An open letter to the archdiocese's parishioners explained the archbishop's motivation.
;Archdiocese of San Antonio
John Salazar was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting an 18-year-old parishioner.
;Diocese of San Diego
On 27 February 2007, the Diocese of San Diego filed for Chapter 11 protection, hours before the first of about 150 lawsuits was due to be heard.
;Diocese of Savannah
In October, 2009, the diocese of Savannah paid $4.24 million to settle a lawsuit which alleged that Lessard allowed a priest named Wayland Brown to work in the diocese when Lessard knew that Brown was a serial child molester who posed a danger to children.
;Diocese of Spokane
Under Bishop William S. Skylstad the Diocese of Spokane declared bankruptcy in December 2004. As part of its bankruptcy, the diocese has agreed to pay at least $48 million as compensation. This payout has to be agreed to by the victims and a judge before it will be made. According to federal bankruptcy judge, Gregg W. Zive, money for the settlement would come from insurance companies, the sale of church property, contributions from Catholic groups and from the diocese's parishes.
;Diocese of Stockton
Fr. Oliver O'Grady molested multiple children in Stockton. The 2006 documentary Deliver Us from Evil is based on accusations that Bishop Roger Mahony knew that Oliver O'Grady was an active pedophile.
;Diocese of Tucson
The Diocese of Tucson filed for bankruptcy in September, 2004. It reached an agreement with plaintiffs, which the bankruptcy judge approved on 11 June 2005, specifying terms that included allowing the diocese reorganization to continue in return for a $22.2 million settlement.
;Diocese of Wheeling–Charleston, West Virginia
Bishop Michael J. Bransfield resigned, effective immediately, in September 2018 over unspecified allegations of sexual misconduct.

Oceania

Australia

In 2017, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse established that some 4,444 claimants alleged incidents of child sexual abuse in 4,756 reported claims to Catholic Church authorities and at least 1,880 suspected abusers from 1980 to 2015. Most of those suspected of abuse were Catholic priests and religious brothers and 62 percent of the survivors who told the commission they were abused in religious institutions were abused in a Catholic facility. By means of a weighted index, the Commission found that at 75 archdioceses/dioceses and religious institutes with priest members examined, some 7 per cent of priests for crimes involving eight boys.
The abuse scandal at the Marylands School is an important chapter in the clerical abuse affairs in New Zealand but other cases have also emerged.

South America

Argentina

On August 17, 2019, Argentina Bishop Sergio Buenanueva of San Francisco, Cordoba, acknowledged the history of sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Argentina. Buenanueva, who was labeled as a "Prelate" for the Argentine Catholic Church, also stated that the church's sex abuse crisis in Argentina, which also happens to be Pope Francis's native country, was "just beginning." On July 15, 2020, it was revealed that a lawyer had issued criminal charges against Archbishops Eduardo Martin of Rosario and Sergio Fenoy of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz for seeking to “supplant the public prosecutor’s office” by encouraging complaints to another body.
;Archdiocese of La Plata
Accused Diocese of Mendoza priest Fr. Nicola Corradi was also charged by authorities in Buenos Aires province of sexually abusing children at a school in La Plata. The Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf in Mendoza province, where Corradi was also accused of molesting children, kept secret archives in the province's city of La Plata. The La Plata school where Corradi is accused of molesting children is also a sister school to the Antonio Provolo Institute. Corradi was later convicted for the Mendoza sex abuse charges and received a prison sentence of 42 years.
;Diocese of Orán
On 10 June 2019, former Orán Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta was criminally charged with sexually abusing two seminarians. Zanchetta, who was one of Pope Francis's first appointments in his home country, was first accused of “strange behaviour” in 2015 when pornographic pictures, including naked selfies, were found on his phone. In August 2017, Pope Francis allowed Zanchetta to resign as Bishop of Orán, citing "health reasons," but then appointed him to serve as Assessor, or Councilor, to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. Despite this appointment, Zanchetta remained in Argentina when he was charged. He was barred from leaving the country, had to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, and faces between three and ten years in prison if convicted. A Holy See trial also began for Zanchetta nearly two weeks before criminal charges were brought against him in Argentina on 28 May 2019. A local priest speaking on anonymity later told Crux Now on August 13, 2019 that the diocese had “not one, not two, not three, but several” cases of sex abuse. On August 28, 2019, it was announced that Zanchetta's travel ban was lifted and that he returned to Rome, though he still remains suspended as Councilor to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and will serve in a new Holy See job.
On November 7, 2019, the main offices of the Diocese of Oran were raided as part of the ongoing investigation against Zanchetta. Zanchetta is also accused of committing acts of financial fraud and mismanagement by embezzling Diocese charity funds which were secretly not used for charitable causes, but instead were used for personal causes. Zanchetta also secretly sold Church property to buyers as well. After this report surfaced it was reported that Zanchetta was still suspended by the Holy See. On November 27, 2019, Zanchetta returned voluntarily to Argentina and appeared in court earlier than the scheduled November 28 deadline. A judge once again allowed Zanchetta to return to the Vatican, but also required him to maintain residence at the Santa Marta Hotel.
;Diocese of Morón
In 2009, Julio Grassi was found guilty of one count of sexual abuse and one count of corrupting a minor in the "Happy Children’s Foundation".
;Archdiocese of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz
Allegations of sexual abuse by Archbishop Edgardo Storni on 47 young seminarists surfaced in 1994, and were published in 2000. This led to a victim from a 1992 incident coming forward, followed by a conviction for eight years in December 2009.
;Archdiocese of Mendoza
;Diocese of Anápolis
;Archdiocese of Penedo
;Archdiocese of Santiago
;Diocese of Valparaíso
;Diocese of Rancagua
;Diocese of Punta Arenas
;Marist Brothers Education Facilities
;Society of Jesus
In 2007, Daniel Bernardo Beltrán Murguía Ward, a 42-year-old Sodalitium Christianae Vitae consecrated layman was found by the National Police in a hostel in Cercado de Lima with a 12-year-old boy, of whom he was taking sexually explicit pictures. The boy was initially lured by Murguía Ward in Miraflores, where he was given Pokémon figures in exchange for photos of his intimate parts. When Murguía Ward was caught, he had paid the boy 20 soles for his services in the hostel. The police have reported that pictures of two other boys were also found on Murguía Ward's camera and that the boy has claimed he received oral sex from Murguía Ward. These charges have been denied by the accused. Murguía Ward has since been removed from the SCV for his alleged misconduct.