Bishops Accused of Sexual Abuse and Misconduct A Global Accounting The latest research by BishopAccountability.org identifies 101 Catholic bishops worldwide who have been accused publicly of sexual wrongdoing. Those marked in red allegedly abused minors; those in black are publicly accused of sexual abuse/sexual misconduct with adults only. Until the 2018 revelations of alleged child sexual abuse by former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the problem of bishops and major superiors who abuse had received little scrutiny. Yet a sexually abusive bishop or superior is exceptionally dangerous. His management of priests is skewed toward protecting his secret, beginning with the character of men he accepts to the seminary and the quality of their formation. When one of his priests is accused of sexual abuse, a bishop who is also an offender is unlikely to punish the priest or contact law enforcement. He is, inevitably, an enabler of other sexual criminals, harming not only his own victims, but those who are raped or assaulted by the abusive clerics to whom he gives safe harbor. In the Catholic church, “sexual corruption is conferred from the top down – from men in power,” wrote celibacy scholar Richard Sipe. Bishops who sexually abuse seminarians, as McCarrick is canonically convicted of doing, and as Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell admitted doing, may establish what Sipe called “a genealogy of abuse,” setting up “a pattern of institutional secrecy.” Despite the extensive harm done by abusive church leaders, few have been severely disciplined. Only seven have been laicized: Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez of Paraguay (2008), Raymond J. Lahey of Canada (2012), Gabino Miranda Melgarejo of Peru (2013), Jósef Wesołowski of Poland (2014), Francisco José Cox Huneeus of Chile (2018), Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández of Chile (2018), and Theodore McCarrick of the United States (2019). All of the remaining bishops named below, even those found guilty under canon law, have been allowed to retain the title of bishop and to be called emeritus, a status that confers continued prestige and power. According to a 2008 document by the Congregation for Bishops, when a bishop becomes emeritus, he merely is beginning ‘a new phase of his ministry.’ Though relieved of administrative duties, he retains his membership in the college of bishops and continues to ‘collaborate in the governance of the church.’ | ||
COUNTRY Argentina | Australia | Austria | Belgium | Brazil | Canada | Chile | Dominican Republic | France | Germany | Guam | Honduras | Iceland |India | Ireland | Italy | Kenya | Netherlands | Nigeria | Norway | Paraguay | Peru | Philippines | Poland | Portugal | Puerto Rico | Scotland | South Africa | Switzerland | United States | Uruguay | Wales |
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ACCUSED OF SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINORS Apuron | Arzube | Bactol | Bluyssen | Bransfield | Brown | Burke | Camacho | Carraro | Casey | Contreras Molina | Cowley | Cox Huneeus | Davis | di Falco Léandri | Duarte García de Cortázar | Delgado | Dimmerling | Dozier | Dudley | Dupre | Fernández Torres | Ferrario | Flores | Gelineau | Gijsen | Groër | Harrington | Hart | Hubbard | Janssen | Jenik | Lahey | LaRocque | Livieres Banks | Magee | McCarrick | McGann | McQuaid | Medeiros | Miranda Melgarejo | Mixa | Müller | Niënhaus | Nienstedt | O'Brien | O'Connell | Órdenes Fernández | Orsmond | Pagotto | Pell | Pellegrín Barrera |Rausch | Rueger | Ryan | Salazar | Schilder | Skylstad | Soens | Storni | Sullivan, James | Sullivan, Joseph | Symons | ter Schure | Vangheluwe | Ward | Weldon | Wesołowski | Williams | Ziemann ACCUSED OF SEXUAL ABUSE OF OR MISCONDUCT WITH ADULTS ONLY Antonazzo | Barbosa Da Silveira | Abanto Guzmán | Bacani | Bär | Brom | Comiskey | Eisenbach | Ferreira da Silva | Knight | Lugo Méndez | Lynch | Maccarone | Marino | McCarthy | Moreira Azevedo | Mulakkal | O'Brien | O'Connor | Paetz | Pineda | Tejeda Rosario | Sanchez | Sarto | Spellman | Uriona | Vogel | Weakland | Welsh | Wright | Yalung | Zanchetta |
