Karlijn "Karline" Demasure (born 1955) is a Belgian professor of theology teaching at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Her field of expertise is child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Since 2014 she is the Executive Director of the Centre for Child Protection of Gregorian University. [1]
After obtaining in 2003 a PhD on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Demasure worked as a doctoral assistant and assistant professor at the University of Leuven. From 2007 till 2011 she was a researcher for the Interdiocesan Services for Pastoral Care for Families (Belgium) and for the Chaplaincy in the Dutch Military (The Netherlands). From 2008 to 2014 she held the Chair Sisters of Our Lady of the Cross in Christian Family Studies as an associate professor at Saint Paul University Ottawa (Canada). From 2010 to 2014 she was the dean of the faculties of Human Sciences and Philosophy. From 2012 to 2014 Demasure was the president of the Societé Internationale de Théologie Pratique.
From 2014 to 2019 she was the Executive Director of the Centre for Child Protection of the Gregorian University. This centre elaborates e-learning programs in preventing abuse of children and vulnerable persons. In 2016 the CCP started with a diploma course in safeguarding of minors. In 2019 Demasure decided to return to Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada, where she now heads the newly established interdisciplinary Centre for Safeguarding Minors and Vulnerable Persons.
There have been many cases of sexual abuse of children by priests, nuns, and other members of religious life in the Catholic Church. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the cases have involved many allegations, investigations, trials, convictions, acknowledgement and apologies by Church authorities, and revelations about decades of instances of abuse and attempts by Church officials to cover them up. The abused include mostly boys but also girls, some as young as three years old, with the majority between the ages of 11 and 14. Criminal cases for the most part do not cover sexual harassment of adults. The accusations of abuse and cover-ups began to receive public attention during the late 1980s. Many of these cases allege decades of abuse, frequently made by adults or older youths years after the abuse occurred. Cases have also been brought against members of the Catholic hierarchy who covered up sex abuse allegations and moved abusive priests to other parishes, where abuse continued.
The Pontifical Gregorian University, is a higher education ecclesiastical school located in Rome, Italy.
The pontifical secret, pontifical secrecy, or papal secrecy is the code of confidentiality that, in accordance with the Latin canon law of the Catholic Church as modified in 1983, applies in matters that require greater than ordinary confidentiality:
Business of the Roman Curia at the service of the universal Church is officially covered by ordinary secrecy, the moral obligation of which is to be gauged in accordance with the instructions given by a superior or the nature and importance of the question. But some matters of major importance require a particular secrecy, called "pontifical secrecy", and must be observed as a grave obligation.
Daniel Nicholas DiNardo is an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is the second and current archbishop of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in Texas serving since 2006. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City in Iowa from 1998 to 2004.
Kevin Carl Rhoades is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been serving as bishop of Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in Indiana since 2009. Rhoades previously served as the bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg in Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2009.
Earl Alfred Boyea Jr. is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been serving as the bishop of the Diocese of Lansing in Michigan since 2008. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit in Michigan from 2002 to 2008.
Robert Joseph Banks is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, serving as bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay in Wisconsin from 1990 to 2003. He also served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston in Massachusetts from 1985 to 1990.
Stephen Joseph Rossetti is an American Catholic priest, author, educator, licensed psychologist and expert on psychological and spiritual wellness issues for Catholic priests. He has appeared on such television shows as Meet the Press and Larry King Live. He served as president and CEO of Saint Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland from 1996 to 2009 and as president from 2013 to 2014. In October, 2009 Rossetti stepped down from this position and in January 2010, joined the faculty of The Catholic University of America to teach in the School of Theology and Religious Studies. Since 2009, he has also served as the chaplain of the Washington Nationals.
From the late 1980s, allegations of sexual abuse of children associated with Catholic institutions and clerics in several countries started to be the subject of sporadic, isolated reports. In Ireland, beginning in the 1990s, a series of criminal cases and Irish government enquiries established that hundreds of priests had abused thousands of children over decades. Six reports by the former National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church established that six Irish priests had been convicted between 1975 and 2011. This has contributed to the secularisation of Ireland and to the decline in influence of the Catholic Church. Ireland held referendums to legalise same-sex marriage in 2015 and abortion in 2018.
Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Canada are well documented dating back to the 1960s. The preponderance of criminal cases with Canadian Catholic dioceses named as defendants that have surfaced since the 1980s strongly indicate that these cases were far more widespread than previously believed. While recent media reports have centred on Newfoundland dioceses, there have been reported cases—tested in court with criminal convictions—in almost all Canadian provinces. Sexual assault is the act of an individual touching another individual sexually and/or committing sexual activities forcefully and/or without the other person's consent. The phrase Catholic sexual abuse cases refers to acts of sexual abuse, typically child sexual abuse, by members of authority in the Catholic church, such as priests. Such cases have been occurring sporadically since the 11th century in Catholic churches around the world. This article summarizes some of the most notable Catholic sexual abuse cases in Canadian provinces.
The ecclesiastical response to Catholic sexual abuse cases is a major aspect of the academic literature surrounding the Church's child sexual abuse scandal. The Catholic Church's response to the scandal can be viewed on three levels: the diocesan level, the episcopal conference level and the Vatican. Responses to the scandal proceeded at all three levels in parallel with the higher levels becoming progressively more involved as the gravity of the problem became more apparent.
Bernard Anthony Hebda is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has served as the twelfth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota since March 24, 2016.
Paul Dennis Étienne is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle in Washington State since 2019.
The Curial response to Catholic sexual abuse cases was a significant part of the Church's response to Catholic sexual abuse cases. Its policies have shifted from favoring secrecy in the 20th century to active reform and apologies in the 21st century. Under the current leadership of Pope Francis, the issue has been addressed through direct instructions to report cases of sexual abuse and revoking the former policies of secrecy.
Charles Jude Scicluna is a Canadian-Maltese prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as Archbishop of Malta since 2015. Both as a curial official and since becoming a bishop, he has conducted investigations into sexual abuse by clergy on behalf of the Holy See and led a board that reviews such cases. He has been called "the Vatican's most respected sex crimes expert".
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is a pontifical commission within the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church instituted by Pope Francis on 22 March 2014 as an advisory agency serving the pope. Since 5 June 2022, the Commission has been part of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, operating with its officials and according to its norms.
Alexandrina Henderson Farmer Jay, CBE is a British academic. She is visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde and the independent chair of the Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection (CELCIS).
The Institute of Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC) is an academic institute at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. The institute offers higher-education degrees in safeguarding and a doctorate in anthropology. The IADC has assumed the responsibilities of the Centre for Child Protection (CCP), which was launched in Munich in January 2012 by Pontifical Gregorian University's Institute of Psychology in cooperation with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising and the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University of Ulm.
Hans Zollner, SJ is a German Jesuit priest, theologian and psychologist, Professor at the Gregorian University, Director of its Institute of Anthropology. Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC) and one of the leading experts on safeguarding and prevention of sexual abuse.
The Vatican sexual abuse summit, officially the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church, was a four-day Catholic Church summit meeting in Vatican City that ran from 21 to 24 February 2019, convened by Pope Francis to discuss preventing sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy.
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