Over the past 20 years, the number of abuse allegations against Catholic clergy in the United States has dropped, according to a new report from the Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Source: Crux.
It also notes that over $US5 billion ($8.05 billion) has been paid in costs due to the abuse crisis in the Church in the US.
In November 2004, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops commissionedthe Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) to conduct an annual survey of all of the dioceses and eparchies whose bishops are members of the USCCB.
In a report issued on Wednesday, CARA said over the past 20 years, dioceses and religious communities have deemed a total of 16,276 allegations of abuse of minors by priests, deacons, and religious brothers as “credible”.
The report says about four in five of these allegations were deemed credible by dioceses and eparchies (13,331 or 82 per cent), with the other one in five deemed credible by religious communities of men (2945 or 18 per cent).
“To be clear, these credible allegations of abusive behaviours did not occur over the 20 years of the survey, but rather over the more than 80 years asked about on the annual surveys,” the report says.
It also noted four in five abuse victims were male (80 percent) and one in five was female (20 per cent).
Meanwhile, more than half were ages 10 to 14 (56 per cent) at the time the abuse occurred or began, with 24 per cent ages 15 to 17 and 20 per cent ages nine and younger.
The report noted that more than 90 per cent of the allegations occurred in 1989 or before, with 5 per cent in the 1990s and just 3 per cent since 2000.
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Over past 20 years, abuse of children falls drastically in Church (Crux)
