Twelve senior Catholic prelates have resigned because of the clerical child sex abuse crisis.
These include Cardinal Gröer of Vienna in 1998 and Bishop Ronald Mulkearns in Australia, who resigned in 1997 after failing to act against a priest who later pleaded guilty to 26 charges of abuse against 20 children.
In Canada, Bishop Hubert O'Connor resigned in 1993 after being convicted of molesting teenagers at a boarding school. In 1990 Archbishop Ligouri Penney resigned following the scandal at Mount Cashel which led to the conviction of 20 priests and lay staff. He was alleged to have known about the abuse and failed to act. Bishop Brendan Comiskey resigned last April after the BBC Suing the Pope programme.
Archbishop Juliusz Paetz of Poznan in Poland resigned this year after allegations he had abused seminarians. Archbishop John Aloysius Ward of Cardiff resigned last year after ordaining a man accused of abusing a child.
In the United States, five bishops have resigned following allegations of sexual relations with minors. Archbishop Roberto Sanchez and Bishop Joseph Ferrario resigned in 1993, Bishop Joesph Symons resigned in 1998, Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell and Bishop J. Kendrick Williams both resigned earlier this year.