Catholic Church sexual abuse cases
By the 1990s, the cases began to receive a lot of media and public attention in countries such as Canada, United States, Chile, Australia and Ireland, and in much of Europe and South America. In 2002, an investigation by The Boston Globe led to widespread media coverage of the issue in the United States. Widespread abuse has been exposed in Europe, Australia, Chile, and the United States, reflecting worldwide patterns of long-term abuse as well as the Church hierarchy's pattern of regularly covering up reports of abuse.