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Catholics Report Rise in Abuse Cases
BY KEVIN ECKSTROM ©2009 Religion News Service
.S. Catholic leaders processed more than 800 allegations of clergy sexual abuse in 2008, a 16 percent increase from 2007. The majority of the allegations involved abuse that occurred decades ago.
A report issued March 13 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops showed 803 allegations were filed by 706 victims last year against 518 clergy. The church also spent more than $436 million in legal settlements, attorney fees and counseling costs.
Just 13 of the 803 cases involved alleged abuse of a minor that occurred during 2008. Nearly all of the cases involved accusations of molestation that occurred decades ago. The church said 83 percent of the accused clergy were dead, defrocked or missing.
The relative lack of recent cases shows that the American church has "turned a corner" in the abuse scandal that erupted seven years ago, said Teresa M. Kettlekamp, the director of the bishops' abuse-prevention office. "Is every diocese doing everything perfectly? No, we are not there yet, though we're far closer than we were last year, and the year before that, and all previous years," Kettlekamp wrote in the report.
Victims' advocates, however, raised questions about a section in the report that said "many dioceses are conducting ... investigations themselves without also making a report to civil authorities," which would be a direct violation of the bishops' 2002 reforms.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, worried that children may be at risk while church officials sift through allegations without first alerting law enforcement. "To be honest, this is precisely what got us into this mess to begin with: untrained, biased church amateurs trying to be cops, investigators, forensic experts and prosecutors," Clohessy said.
Kettlekamp, however, said her report raised the issue only as a cautionary warning to dioceses not to try to handle criminal behavior on their own. She said she would not include it in a "problem category."
"Our rule of thumb is that if it involves a current minor, you involve the civil authorities immediately and rely on their expertise," she said in an interview. "I'm not saying we have this problem; I'm saying I don't want this to become a problem."
The increase from 691 total allegations in 2007 to 803 in 2008 appears to be fueled by a 93 percent spike in abuse involving members of religious communities. Those allegations nearly doubled, from 92 to 178; 40 percent of the 2008 allegations involved one religious order. By comparison, the total number of allegations reported by the nation's 195 dioceses increased by 26, or 4 percent, from 2007.
Kettlekamp declined to name the religious order responsible for the majority of the increase, and referred calls to an umbrella group for men's religious orders. A spokesman said officials were out of the country and unable to comment.
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