The Catholic Church in the United States accounted for 4,434 complaints of sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy during the 2018-19 fiscal year, triple that of the previous year, and much of the increase stems from a series of lawsuits and claims filed by victims who They were abused decades ago, the episcopate said in a report released Thursday.
In the most recent annual document on sexual abuse by priests, dioceses and other Catholic entities reported making payments of $ 281.6 million during the year to cover expenses related to the allegations, including payments for cases reported in previous years. .
Of the total, only 37 of the new accusations were made by people who were minors during the audited year that ended on June 30, 2019. Of that number, eight complaints were substantiated, while the rest are still under investigation or were considered unfounded.
There has been a marked increase overall in complaints in the past three years, in which dioceses have faced unprecedented pressure to address the problem of clergy sexual abuse, which has been going on for decades. The 2017 report included 693 accusations, and the 2018 report had 1,451 complaints.
The cases cited in the new report involve 2,982 priests and other Church personnel. Of the allegations, 1,034 were substantiated; many others are still under investigation or could not be demonstrated, according to the document.
Many dioceses in the United States have been the subject of state investigations after a Pennsylvania investigating jury released a report in August 2018 detailing hundreds of cases of alleged abuse. In February 2019, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was expelled from the priesthood for sexually abusing minors and seminarians, and investigators have attempted to determine whether some of the highest-ranking members of the Catholic clergy covered up their crimes.
Many dioceses in the country have established victim compensation programs that have filed credible claims of abuse, and some others have filed for bankruptcy. Hundreds of new allegations were made through lawsuits, most of them brought by men in their 40s and 60s who claimed they were victims of abuse during their childhood.
The number of lawsuits could increase in the current fiscal year, as legislatures in New York, New Jersey, California, and other states passed changes to the statutes of limitations on crimes, which grant victims of abuse decades ago new opportunities to file lawsuits against the Church and other institutions.
The new report also details the work carried out by the Church to combat abuse. In 2019, more than 2.6 million background checks were conducted on priests, employees, and volunteers, and training was provided to more than 2.6 million adults and 3.6 million youth to identify the first signs of abuse and how report incidents.
This is the 17th report of abuse by members of the clergy since 2002, when the US episcopate established and implemented a comprehensive set of procedures to address allegations of sexual abuse.
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