US Catholic Church Paid 615 Million For Abuse Cases in 2007

By: Karin Zeitvogel

The Roman Catholic church in the United States paid out 615 million dollars (400 million euros) in 2007 for child sex abuse cases involving members of the clergy, or 54 percent more than the previous year, an official report showed.

Around 23 million dollars was paid out for therapy for victims or support for accused offenders, and 60 million dollars for legal fees, said the report, which was commissioned by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Most victims were male, and more than half were between the ages of 10 and 14 when the abuse began.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the USCCB, said in a statement that child protection was a priority for the bishops, and praised them for "working diligently to implement the Charter."

But Terry McKiernan, president of the organization Bishop Accountability, which documents the abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic church, said the report by the bishops was opaque and fudged the number of clergymen who have been accused of sexually abusing children.

"Because the report is only counting and not actually naming the priests, we are not able to determine which of these allegations pertain to priests already accused and which pertain to new priests," McKiernan told AFP by phone from Boston.

"This is nowhere near a complete accounting from the bishops conference, but it's better than nothing," he said.
McKiernan estimated that more than 5,000 priests out of nearly 41,500 across the United States have been denounced for sexually abusing children since the 1950s.

"We know that the number is considerably over 5,000 now, and that, on the basis of annual adjustments since the John Jay report came out in 2004," McKiernan said.

A report commissioned in 2004 by the USCCB from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Washington found that nearly 4,400 priests had been accused of abuse.

Source: American Free Press http://www.americanfreepress.net