Monday, July 4, 2011

Impact of Pedophile Priest Sex Abuse Scandal Felt Worldwide

9:35 AM 666 - USA

Sources: The Boston Globe- Spotlight Investigation, Associated Press, BBC, Catholic World News, Globe archives, and other news reports

Locations outside the United States where catholic bishops have resigned in connection with sex scandals.

Match the numbers to the descriptions below.

Since 1990, 11 Catholic bishops outside the United States have resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct, on their own part or of those they supervised, became public.

1

A R G E N T I N A
Archbishop Edgardo Storni

of Santa Fe resigned on Oct. 1, 2002, after a book accused him of abusing at least 47 young seminarians. The Vatican had investigated allegations against Storni in 1994, but found insufficient evidence to act. Storni said his resignation did not signify guilt.

2

G E R M A N Y
Auxiliary Bishop Franziskus Eisenbach

of Mainz resigned on April 16, 2002, after a female university professor accused him of sexually assaulting her during an exorcism. Eisenbach denied the allegation and the Vatican said his resignation was not an admission of guilt.

3

I R E L A N D
Bishop Brendan Comiskey

of Ferns is the first known member of the church hierarchy to resign voluntarily over his management of an abusive priest. Comiskey stepped down on April 1, 2002, after coming under fire for his handling of the Rev. Sean Fortune, an accused pedophile. Comiskey apologized for his conduct and the church launched a probe of the scandal.

4

P O L A N D
Archbishop Juliusz Paetz

of Poznan, a close associate of Pope John Paul II, resigned on March 28, 2002, amid accusations he had made sexual advances on young clerics. Paetz denied the allegations, but said he was resigning "for the good of the church." The Vatican conducted an inconclusive investigation of the case.

5

W A L E S
Archbishop John Aloysius Ward

of Cardiff, Wales, was forced by the pope to resign on Oct. 26, 2001, after he was accused of ignoring warnings about two priests who were later convicted of child abuse.

6

S C O T L A N D
Bishop Roderick Wright

of Argyll and the Isles resigned on Sept. 16, 1996, after admitting an affair with a mother of three who he met while counseling her during her divorce. After his resignation, Wright and the woman married. Wright acknowledged that he had fathered a son by another woman earlier in his career.

7

C A N A D A
Bishop H O'Connor

of Prince George, British Columbia, was sentenced on Sept. 13, 1996, to 2 1/2 years in prison for sexually assaulting two teenage girls at a boarding school in central British Colombia while he was principal there in the 1960s.

8

S W I T Z E R L AND
Bishop Hansjoerg Vogel

of Basel resigned on June 2, 1995, after admitting he had impregnated a woman following his appointment to the hierarchy the year before.

9

A U S T R I A
Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer

of Vienna was forced by the Vatican to retire in April 1995 following allegations he repeatedly abused students at an all-male Catholic high school in Hollabrunn in the 1970s. Groer rejected the accusations.

10

I R E L A N D
Bishop Eamonn Casey

of Galway stepped down on May 7, 1992, after admitting he had fathered the son of a Connecticut woman while having an affair with her in 1973. Casey used church offerings to pay the woman thousands of dollars in child support.

11

C A N A D A
Archbishop Alphonsus Penney

of St. John's, Newfoundland, resigned on February 2, 1991, after a church commission criticized him for failing to prevent extensive abuse of boys living in Newfoundland orphanages.


Back to the Top