Clerical abuse has been in the news again lately. For more than two decades, horrific stories of abuse and coverup have been a mainstay of the news in the English-speaking world and beyond. The most recent round of stories raises the the question of whether the church will ever really address the root of the problem.
Earlier this month, a Western Australia parliamentary committee gave its final report after examining the support available to survivors of institutional child abuse, saying the Catholic Church and other religious entities had put their own institutional and financial wellbeing over the needs of victims.
In New Zealand last month, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care lambasted the Catholic Church in its report to the abuse of children and vulnerable adults in care facilities.
Also last month, news reports on the legacy of Bishop Eamonn Casey appeared in newspapers and television in Ireland. Casey, who died in 2017, was accused of sexual impropriety in the 1990s, and in 2019 it was reported the bishop had faced at least three accusations of sexual abuse before his death.
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