The Catholic Church in America is experiencing an agonizing revelation
of priestly sexual abuse over the last 30 years. Is the Catholic
Church in Europe, Africa and South America also in the midst of this?
Or is this an American phenomenon only?

Canada and The Netherlands are mentioned in the Men’s Issues pages of
the World Wide Web Virtual Library at
http://www.vix.com/men/abuse/clergy.html

The UK newspaper, The Guardian, September 17, 2001, has a report on
abuse by Catholic priests in England and Wales
http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/story/0,1074,553416,00.html

Electronic Newsroom mentions cases in South Africa
http://www.ucc.org/news/e051702e.htm

ETaiwanNews reports a case in Australia
http://www.etaiwannews.com/Asia/2002/06/01/1022899526.htm

A news article from the BBC News web site, 2 May 2002, mentions cases
in Hong Kong, France, Ireland and Austria
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1963000/1963716.stm

Another BBC News article, 23 April 2002, lists cases in Australia,
Austria, France, Ireland, Poland, South Africa, UK, Brazil and Mexico
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1945000/1945848.stm

An article from the Boston Globe, 8 April, 2002 mentions Chile,
Ireland, Poland, Australia, Canada, Belgium, France, South Africa and
Italy.  It also says “A Providence College psychology professor, the
Rev. Joseph J. Guido, conducted a survey of superiors of an
unspecified Catholic religious order and found that 83 percent of the
North Americans were aware of an accusation of abuse against one of
their priests, compared with 43 percent in Central America and the
Caribbean and one-third in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America.
''Research suggests ... that the sexual abuse of children is a problem
for the church everywhere,'' Guido wrote in the current issue of
America magazine, a Jesuit weekly.”  It then goes on to report:
“Academics and church officials familiar with the church in the Third
World say the problem of clergy sexual abuse is generally not talked
about there, so it is difficult to determine whether it exists to the
same extent as in the United States… …“In India you'd have gossip and
rumors, but it never reaches the level of formal charges or
controversies” … “Jayawardene said there is no question that clergy
sexual abuse happens in Asia. ''I have known clergy who have
complained that their seminary rectors abused them as minors in South
Asia - I know that was prevalent in South Asia,” …  “In Africa, by
contrast, celibacy has been much less accepted, and most reported
sexual problems have been between priests and adult women. There was a
scandal last summer after the National Catholic Reporter reported that
priests had been raping nuns in parts of Africa.”

Search strategy on Google: Catholic child abuse
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Catholic+child+abuse

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Clarification of Answer by tehuti-ga on 13 Jul 2002 16:49 PDT

Thank you, maryhrn, for your kind comments. On revisiting the
question, I noticed that I had omitted to include the web reference
for the complete Boston Globe article.  It's at
http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/stories/040802_world.htm

Very complete references, and the answer was posted very soon after my
question was sent. Thank you so much!!!

We also have an "epidemic" here in Australia as well. Young boys and
young girls, (but mostly boys), have been coming forward lately with
the same sort of stories you have heard. Some are pretty shocking as
you could imagine.
 The problem here for the church is that they have paid "hush money"
to the victims to ensure their silence but it has not worked over the
long term as  some that were paid are now deciding to tell their
stories.


 John from Melbourne