As distinct from abuse by some parish priests, who are subject to diocesan control, there has also been abuse by members of Roman Catholic orders, which often care for the sick or teach at school. Just as diocesan clergy have arranged parish transfers of abusive priests, abusive brothers in Catholic orders are sometimes transferred.

In response the Roman Catholic Church published its "Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders" in 2005. However this did not address the significant problem of heterosexual abuse by members of Roman Catholic orders.

Canon law Catholic Canon law had for centuries laid down the demanding professional requirements and duties of its members, and these were summarised in the Papal encyclical "Religiosorum institutio" of 1961. Paragraph 29 emphasised that – "Among the proofs and signs of a divine vocation the virtue of chastity is regarded as absolutely necessary".

Australia

Congregation of Christian Brothers

In Australia, there were allegations that during the 1970s sexual abuses took place at the junior campus of St Patricks College and St Alipius Primary School (now closed) in Ballarat, Victoria. After investigation, Brothers Robert Best, Edward Dowlan and Stephen Francis Farrell were all convicted of sex crimes. Dowlan and Best were later transferred to the senior campus, and continued to offend.Ellingsen, Peter. Ballarat's good men of the cloth. The Age Newspaper, 14 June 2002.

Marist Brothers

In February 2008, a teacher at Marist College Canberra, Brother John William Chute (also known as Brother Kostka), pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court to eleven charges of indecently assaulting students of the college during the 1980s. Damages for sexual abuse have also been sought by former students at Marist College Canberra.

Marist Regional College was the scene of sex offences against minors during the 1960s and 1970s. In 2007 and 2008, convictions were recorded against two former priests.

Pallottines

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse reported by weighted average that 13.7% of the Pallottine order's priests were the subject of allegations of child abuse between 1950 and 2010.

Salesian order

In Australia, there are allegations that the Salesians moved a priest convicted of abuse in Melbourne to Samoa to avoid further police investigation and charges.

In August 2008, the Salesian head in Australia, Fr Frank Moloney SDB, apologised to victims of a former priest Paul Evans convicted of a series of offences. Evans was a Salesian priest when the offences occurred at Boys' Town in Sydney in the 1980s. He was legally and canonically removed from the Order in 1991.

Belgium

Congregation of the Fratres Van Dale

On 14 November 2005, former religious brothers Luc D. and Roger H. of the Congregation of the Fratres Van Dale were sentenced by a Belgian court to imprisonment for sexual abuse of mentally handicapped persons.

Canada

Congregation of Christian Brothers

The Congregation of Christian Brothers has been tainted by various scandals that occurred in the 20th century, especially at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland and in state-sponsored institutions that they ran in Ireland.

Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate Members of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate have been involved in several sex scandals in Canada, in large part due to their participation in the Residential School System. The Oblates of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northwestern Ontario faced over 2000 lawsuits and tens of millions of dollars in damages because of sex abuse claims. As of 2018, the Oblates of Quebec were ready to settle out of court a class-action lawsuit by 72 people who say they were assaulted by 17 Oblates who worked in Quebec's Abitibi, Mauricie and North Shore regions. As well, priests of the order have been the subject of multiple allegations and lawsuits stemming from alleged abuse at St. Anne's Indian Residential School in James Bay.

Chile

Society of Jesus

The Jesuits have also been affected by abuse affairs in several of their schools and congregations in the United States and Germany. The same abusive teacher in Germany had been guilty of similar crimes in Jesuit schools in Chile and Spain.

Germany

Society of Jesus

The Jesuits have also been affected by abuse affairs in several of their schools and congregations in the United States and Germany.

Ireland

From the 1930s up until the early 1990s, approximately 35,000 Irish children and teenagers who were orphans, petty thieves, truants, unmarried mothers or from dysfunctional families were sent to a network of 250 Church-run industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels.

In the 1990s, a series of television programs publicized allegations of systemic abuse in Ireland's Roman Catholic-run childcare system, primarily in the Reformatory and Industrial Schools. The abuse occurred primarily between the 1930s and 1970s. These documentaries included "Dear Daughter", "Washing Away the Stain" and "Witness: Sex in a Cold Climate and Sinners". These programs interviewed adult victims of abuse who provided "testimony of their experiences, they documented Church and State collusion in the operation of these institutions, and they underscored the climate of secrecy and denial that permeated the church response when faced with controversial accusations." The topic was also covered by American broadcast media. Programs such as CBS's 60 Minutes and ABC's 20/20 produced segments on the subject for an Irish-American audience.

A documentary film series titled States of Fear which detailed abuse suffered by Irish children between the 1930s and 1970s in the state childcare system, primarily in the Reformatory and Industrial Schools, was released in 1999.

Report of the Irish Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse

A lengthy report detailing cases of emotional, physical and sexual abuse of thousands of children over 70 years was published on 20 May 2009. The report drew on the testimony of nearly 2,000 witnesses, men and women who attended more than 200 Roman Catholic-run schools from the 1930s until the 1990s.

Under a 2002 agreement between the Conference of Religious of Ireland, representing the Orders, and Irish government minister Michael Woods on the other side, all those who accepted the state/Brothers settlements had to waive their right to sue both the church and the government. Their abusers' identities were also to be kept secret.

Ireland's national police force announced that they would study the report to see if it provided any new evidence for prosecuting clerics for assault, rape or other criminal offenses. The report, however, did not identify any abusers by name because of a right-to-privacy lawsuit by the Christian Brothers order.

Shamed by the extent, length, and cruelty of child abuse, Ireland's Prime Minister Brian Cowen apologized to victims for the government's failure to intervene in endemic sexual abuse and severe beatings in schools for much of the 20th century. He also promised to reform Ireland's social services for children in line with the recommendations of the commission to Inquire into Child Abuse report.Shamed by child abuse, Ireland to reform services Reuters, 26 May 2009 Further motions to start criminal investigation against members of Roman Catholic religious orders in Ireland were made by Irish President Mary McAleese and Prime Minister Cowen.Irish Church Abusers Should Face Law, McAleese Says Bloomberg, 30 May 2009

The highest-ranked official of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin slammed Irish Roman Catholic orders for concealing their culpability in decades of child abuse, and said they needed to come up with much more money to compensate victims.Archbishop slams Irish Catholic orders over abuse AP, 25 May 2009

At the conclusion of its summer meeting, the Irish Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference said that the abuse of children in institutions run by Roman Catholic priests and nuns was part of a culture that was prevalent in the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. The bishops spent a major portion of their 8–10 June meeting discussing a report from the commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, published 20 May under chairman Sean Ryan. The commission found that church institutions failed to prevent an extensive level of sexual, physical and emotional abuse and neglect.

Following a meeting with the Irish government on 4 June 2009, the 18 Irish religious orders implicated in the abuse have agreed to increase their contribution to the compensation fund for victims. The orders also agreed to an independent audit of their assets, so that their ability to pay further compensation can be determined. In a joint statement following the meeting, the orders said they were willing "to make financial and other contributions toward a broad range of measures, designed to alleviate the hurt caused to people who were abused in their care."

In Northern Ireland the similarly tasked Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry published the "Hart report", supervised by Sir Anthony Hart, a retired Judge, on abuse in state- and church-run institutions in 2017.

Brothers of Charity

An eight-year (1999–2007) enquiry and report by Dr Elizabeth Healy and Dr Kevin McCoy into the Brothers of Charity Order's "Holy Family School" in Galway, Ireland, and two other locations, was made public in December 2007. It found that 11 Brothers and 7 staff members had sexually abused 21 intellectually disabled children.

Congregation of Christian Brothers

In Ireland, during the latter part of the 20th century, Christian brothers schools were noted for brutal and frequent use of corporal punishment.

Sexual abuse was rife. Artane Industrial school's staff hosted a number of Brothers who had repeatedly been warned for "embracing and fondling" boys. Others accused of rape, beat or bribed their victims into silence. Accused Brothers were invariably excused, lightly admonished or, typically, moved to other institutions where they were free to continue abusing children for decades.

Marist Brothers In Sligo, County Sligo, St. John's School had five teachers who have faced abused charges, of which three were Marist Brothers. In January 2008 "Brother Gregory" (real name Martin Meaney) admitted to abusing a boy 20 or 30 times in a four-month period in 1972, apologized unreservedly and was sentenced on five sample charges to two years imprisonment. He described the boy as "a weak little lad", and told police he had "picked on children who were not getting love at home". Meaney had previously served 12 years of an original 18-year jail sentence imposed in November 1992 where he admitted eight sample charges of buggery, rape and indecent assault on other boys, out of 109 charges. These charges arose when he was teaching at Castlerea, County Roscommon.

Norbertine Order The Norbertine Order (or White Canons) neglected to inform the police about the abuse by Brendan Smyth from the 1950s. He was eventually charged in 1994.

Premonstratensians

Salvatorian Order On 19 December 2007 a Patrick McDonagh of the Salvatorian Order admitted eight counts of sexual and indecent assault on four girls (aged 6 to 10) in the period 1965–1990 in Ireland. He was sentenced to four years in prison, with the last 30 months suspended. He gave the police the names of three girls, but also admitted to assaulting six other victims whom he has refused to identify. The judge described this as "remorse" and suspended most of the sentence for his guilty plea. Aged 78 in 2007, he had joined the Salvatorians in 1955 and retired in 2004.

Sisters of Mercy