US Catholic Church Reports Big Rise In Sex-Abuse Allegations

(Associated Press) DAVID CRARY May 31 2019 NEW YORK Quantifying its vast sex-abuse crisis the U.S. Roman Catholic Church said Friday that allegations of child sex abuse by clerics more than doubled in its latest 12-month reporting period and that its spending on victim compensation and child protection surged above $300 million. During the period from July 1 2017 to June 30 2018 1385 adults came forward with 1455 allegations of abuse according to the annual report of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection. That was up from 693 allegations in the previous year. The report attributed much of the increase to a victim compensation program implemented in five dioceses in New York state. According to the report Catholic dioceses and religious orders spent $301.6 million during the reporting period on payments to victims legal fees and child-protection efforts. That was up 14 from the previous year and double the amount spent in the 2014 fiscal year. The number of allegations is likely to rise further during the current fiscal year given that Catholic dioceses in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have started large compensation programs in the wake of a scathing Pennsylvania grand jury report released in August. The grand jury identified more than 300 priests in six of the states dioceses who have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse committed over many decades. Since then attorneys general in numerous states have set up abuse hotlines and launched investigations and a growing number of dioceses and Catholic religious orders have released names of priests accused of abuse. Victims are coming forward now because of real progress by secular authorities" said the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Lawmakers are increasingly getting rid of archaic predator-friendly laws and 16 attorneys general have launched investigations so many victims are feeling hopeful." The advocacy group urged officials in every diocese to turn over sex abuse records to their state attorney general for investigation. The group also said church staff should be instructed to report suspected abuse to secular law enforcement before filing a report internally.