4 Things To Know About Catholic Sex Abuse Scandals, PA Grand Jury Report

By Brandon Showalter, Opinion writer and social commentator Thursday, August 16, 2018

3. The Scandal Comes After McCarrick Ouster, Sex Abuse Plague in Honduras, Chile

The news of what has been occurring in Pennsylvania comes just weeks after the former cardinal and archbishop of Washington D.C., Theodore McCarrick, 88, was stripped of his title.

Reports indicated that "credible and substantiated" evidence surfaced that McCarrick had sexually abused a boy in the 1970s. Several stories from Catholic seminarians sexually abused by McCarrick have also since emerged.

The Latin American nations of Chile and Honduras have also been rocked by sex scandals in the Catholic Church and its affiliated institutions.

In May, 31 Chilean bishops offered their resignation to the pope amid widespread sex abuse claims. Thus far, Francis has accepted the resignations of five of them. The Guardian reported Tuesday that authorities raided the headquarters of the Catholic church's Episcopal Conference in Santiago as part of a ongoing investigation into sex abuse committed by members of the Marist Brothers order.

Last month Pope Francis also accepted the resignation of a senior Honduran Roman Catholic bishop, Juan Jose Pineda Fasquelle, of the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, amid allegations of financial and sexual impropriety.