Figures

Principals on the public record.

Biographical entries are limited to individuals whose conduct is part of the public documentary record of a filed scandal. Private believers are out of scope.

B

  • 1931–2017 Bernard Law American Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Boston from 1984 to 2002. Resigned after the unsealing of archdiocesan personnel records established his role in the systematic reassignment of credibly-accused priests rather than referral to civil authorities.

G

  • 1564–1642 Galileo Galilei Italian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. Tried and convicted by the Roman Inquisition in 1633 for advocating Copernican heliocentrism; sentenced to indefinite house arrest. Formally rehabilitated by the Catholic Church in 1992.

J

  • 1940– Jim Bakker American televangelist, founder of PTL Ministries and the Heritage USA religious-themed resort. Convicted of 24 federal counts of mail and wire fraud and conspiracy in 1989.

T

  • 1420–1498 Tomás de Torquemada Dominican friar; first Inquisitor General of the Spanish Inquisition (1483–1498). Architect of the centralised tribunal system and principal author of the 1484 procedural instructions that defined the institution's operation for the following three centuries.