If you were sexually abused as a child by a priest, deacon or any other member of the Catholic Church, you are not alone. We are here to help you. Please fill out our confidential online contact form or call Toll Free 1-866-777-2557 and a Mississippi Sexual Abuse Lawyer will get back to you within 24 hours to discuss your possible case. Help is available nationwide. There is no cost to investigate and there are no legal fees unless you receive financial compensation. Making the call is sometimes the hardest step, but it is often a necessary step on the road to healing. Priest Sexual Abuse Lawyer Mississippi
Reasons to call
Please call Toll Free 1-866-777-2557 or fill out our confidential contact form and a lawyer will get back to you within 24 hours to discuss your case. Mississippi Priest Sexual Abuse Lawyer
Archdiocese of Boston: Child Sex Abuse Came to Light
The Roman Catholic Church has been fighting its image of rampant child abuse for years. The systemic abuse and coverup of that abuse first came to light in Boston. Bernard Law was the Archbishop of Boston in 1984 and just one year later promoted to Cardinal. Boston has a large Catholic presence and because of this, Cardinal Law had a lot of power. He routinely met with U.S. church officials, the Vatican, and politicians. But what the Cardinal displayed in public was a much different picture than who he was behind the scenes.
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Cardinal Law used his popularity and authority to hide child sexual abuse by priests. When he found out about a priest and what he was doing, he would simply move the priest to another parish. He never notified law enforcement and he never told the parents what he knew. By doing this, he enabled the predatory priests to continue their abuse without worry of being caught or punished.
In 2003, the Massachusetts attorney general released a report that suggested there were more than 1,000 cases of abuse which had occurred at the hands of over 250 priests and other church personnel from the early 1940s to 2000. In the last 68 years in the U.S. alone, over 6,500 priests have had allegations against them of child sexual abuse. The Catholic Church in the U.S. has to date paid out around $3 billion in settlements and awards to victims.
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Not Just a Problem in the U.S.
While the numbers of sexual abuse victims in the U.S. are staggering, the numbers grow from there. According to a panel from the United Nations in 2014, the abuse and systemic coverup is a worldwide problem. There are no numbers as to how many priests have been accused worldwide, although in Australia alone there were over 4,000 claims made from 1980 to 2015, and that’s just one country.
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Does the Vatican Care?
Although Cardinal Law resigned from his Boston post in 2002, he went on to have prime jobs within the Church in Rome. Victims saw this as a slap in the face. The Catholic Church has recently taken a different stance with the new Pope. He has vowed a zero tolerance policy from this point forward. Whether or not his subordinates who were never prosecuted will agree or not is another story
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