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New allegations of sexual abuse surfaced in the U.S. after a U.S. grand jury accused the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of failing to stop the sexual abuse of children more than five years after another grand jury report documented abuse by more than 50 priests.

These new allegations have brought the issue of sexual abuse by priests into the limelight.

The New York Times says in October 2010, the U.S. fell in the Annual Corruption Survey. According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Tribal Justice, American in the United States, Roman Catholic archdioceses have collectively paid some $2 billion in settlements to victims since the priest sex scandals first erupted in Boston nearly a decade ago. In 2011, a Roman Catholic diocese in Delaware agreed to settle 142 claims of sexual abuse by priests for $77 million. Later that year, two Roman Catholic priests, a former priest and a Catholic school teacher were charged with raping young boys. 78% of the victims of sexual abuse in U.S. churches were between the ages of 11 and 17.

Time and again the Roman Catholic Church has been forced to defend itself against charges that top officials tried to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by priests.

Pope Benedict XVI himself has not been spared from these charges, especially for his actions as an archbishop and as the head of a Vatican watchdog group.

A look back at sex abuse scandals in the US

1985: In one of the first major abuse cases to become public, Louisiana priest Gilbert Gauthe pleads guilty to 11 counts of molesting boys. He later serves 10 years in prison. 

1992: Massachusetts priest James Porter is charged with sexually abusing more than two dozen boys and girls. Porter, who pleads guilty and is sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison, is the first case in what becomes a major scandal in the Boston diocese. 

1999: A Massachusetts court brings child rape charges against former priest John Geoghan. Throughout his career, Geoghan had been repeatedly accused of sexually molesting boys but was transferred from parish to parish until 1998, when he was finally defrocked.

2002: Defrocked Boston priest John Geoghan, 66, is convicted of indecent assault and battery as a priest sex scandal in the archdiocese widens. Geoghan, 66, has been accused of abusing 130 children while he was actively serving as a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston over a 30-year period.

2004: Bishops-sponsored study by John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York found 10,667 complaints of sexual abuse against 4,392 priests and deacons between 1950 and 2002.

2005: Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, 74, of Boston is sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison for child rape in the 1980s. 

2007: The San Diego diocese becomes the largest in the nation to file for bankruptcy, beset by more than 150 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by about 60 priests. 

2007: A settlement is reached between the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and hundreds of plaintiffs in a church sex-abuse scandal. The church will pay $660 million, the largest payout in the abuse scandal by far. Cardinal Roger Mahony, leader of the L.A.'s archdiocese, apologized to the hundreds of people who will share the settlement over allegations of clergy sex abuse. 

2010: Father Lawrence C. Murphy, who worked at the St John's School for the Deaf in St Francis, Wisconsin, from 1950 to 1974, allegedly molested up to 200 deaf boys, preying on his victims in their dormitories and on class trips.

The Pope was blamed directly for ignoring repeated pleas by senior American churchmen to take action against this priest who had been accused of these crimes. 

2011: Two Roman Catholic priests, a former priest and a Catholic school teacher have been charged with raping young boys, while a former high-ranking church official was accused of transferring problem priests to new parishes without warning anyone of prior sex-abuse complaints.

2011: A Roman Catholic diocese in Delaware agreed to settle 142 claims of sexual abuse by priests for $77 million.

In the United States, Roman Catholic archdioceses have collectively paid some $2 billion in settlements to victims since the priest sex scandals first erupted in Boston nearly a decade ago. 

Just under 6% of victims abused in U.S. churches were 7 years of age or younger. 16% of the victims were between the ages of 8 and 10. 78% of the victims were between the ages of 11 and 17.

Vatican & the Pope

1981- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) becomes prefect of Vatican's watchdog agency for faith and morals, including the investigation of serious crimes.

The German-born cardinal comes to the job at a time when revelations about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests are beginning to surface, especially in the United States.

Among the accused are the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, a priest at a school for the deaf in Wisconsin, who eventually acknowledges molesting more than 200 boys.

2002- The Vatican issues guidelines for dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse by priests. It calls for all cases to be reported to Rome but makes no mention of reporting the charges to local criminal authorities.

2008- During a flight to the U.S. for his first papal visit, Pope Benedict says the sexual abuse scandal involving U.S. clergy makes him "deeply ashamed." He is pledging to make sure pedophiles do not become priests.

2010- Long-simmering allegations of priest sexual abuse come to the fore in Germany, Brazil and Ireland. One case alleges that when Pope Benedict XVI was archbishop of Munich in the early 1980s, he approved the transfer of a priest who was accused of molesting boys. After then-Cardinal Ratzinger's departure, the priest was allowed to resume pastoral work, where he continued the pattern of abuse. 

RS/SM/DB