A survey of policies and practices in respect to responses by religious institutions to complaints of child sexual abuse and complaints by adults of historical child sexual abuse, 1960-2006

On December 13, 1991 the Government of Canada ratified the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child. [...] I conducted the research on the United Church of Canada (UCC) as I participated in the development of their sexual abuse policy from 1996-2004, and have published a book in the more general area of sexuality and the UCC (examining the years 1925- 1980). [...] With the exception of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada, all of the existing policies examined were/are directed at all complaints of sexual abuse; in other words, child sexual abuse complaints are one type of sexual abuse covered by the policies. [...] Church Structure and Description of the Context The leader of the Catholic Church is the Pope who considered the successor to Saint Peter. [...] The laws of the Catholic Church were first codified in 1917 and formed the Code of Canon Law.