Religious institutions have a long history of covering up cases of clergy sex abuse.
In many cases, they have failed to report incidents of abuse to the authorities or
have chosen to handle the situation internally without notifying the police.
People began to come forward with harrowing stories of sex abuse at the
hands of priests and religious leaders of other churches. Throughout the
1990s, the instances gained widespread media and public attention across
the world, particularly in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Ireland.
LINK: https://www.whitelawpllc.com/faqs/history-of-religious-institutions-covering-