Clergy sex abuse may no longer dominate the headlines, but 1,092 new allegations were made in 2004, with the scandal’s pricetag now topping $800 million, Roman Catholic Church officials said Friday.
Nationwide, most of the alleged incidents occurred decades ago and involved priests who had either died or been removed from ministry or laicized, said Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection.
“The crisis of sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic Church is not over,” she said. “What is over is the denial that this problem exists.”
The new data bring the total allegations of sex abuse since 1950 to 11,750 against more than 5,000 priests and deacons, McChesney said.
About half of the 756 priests and deacons named in the new allegations had not previously been identified, she said.
McChesney said the price tag for abuse – including settlements, victim and offender therapy and attorney’s fees – came to $157.8 million last year. The cost of new child-protection efforts was $20.2 million.
That brings the totals spent by the church since 1950 to more than $800 million, a mounting burden that has prompted three dioceses – Portland, Ore.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Spokane – to file for bankruptcy.
The information released Friday comes from a survey U.S. bishops commissioned to help restore trust in their leadership and from the second round of annual audits to determine their compliance with the so-called “one strike you’re out” policy endorsed at the height of the clerical abuse scandal in June 2002.
The audits, performed by a company hired by the bishops, were criticized as “minimal and misleading” by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a nationwide organization that represents thousands of abuse victims.
Critics warned of signs that the bishops’ commitment to reform is waning, citing the vote three months ago to reduce the number of dioceses that will receive full on-site audits this year.
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