More than $5 billion spent on Catholic sexual abuse allegations, new report finds
Between 2004 and 2023, three-fourths of the $5.025 billion reported was paid to abuse victims. Seventeen percent went to pay attorneys’ fees, 6% was in support for alleged abusers and 2% went toward other costs. On average, only 16% of the costs related to the allegations was borne by insurance companies.
Jonathon Wiggins, a lead researcher on the report, told RNS that the report represented the Catholic Church’s superlative commitment to transparency. The report “is unprecedented by any non-governmental organization and is the largest effort of its kind,” the report’s authors wrote in a statement.
During the 20 years of the survey, the respondents reported 16,276 credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests, deacons or religious brothers. Those allegations represent slightly less than two-thirds (65%) of total allegations that dioceses, eparchies and men’s religious communities reported receiving.
Of the credible allegations, 4 in 5 victims were male, and one-fifth were female. More than half were between the ages of 10 and 14. About a quarter (24%) of victims were between 15 and 17 years old and another 1 in 5 was age 9 or younger.
Those financial troubles have led dioceses throughout the country to sell diocesan property, including diocesan headquarters, seminaries, schools and churches. In the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, every parish had to pay amounts ranging from five figures to more than $1 million toward a bankruptcy settlement.
Of all the survey years, 2019 had the highest number of credible allegations reported, with 2,506 credible allegations reported that year. That year came after a flood of revelations about the extent of sexual abuse in the church.
Many state investigations were opened after an August 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report found that there were more than 1,000 victims of child sexual abuse in that state and that Catholic bishops and other leaders had participated in a cover-up.
2018 was also the year that several dioceses found that the allegation that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had sexually abused a minor was credible, leading to McCarrick’s removal from the clerical state in February 2019.
https://religionnews.com/2025/01/15/more...ort-finds/
Between 2004 and 2023, three-fourths of the $5.025 billion reported was paid to abuse victims. Seventeen percent went to pay attorneys’ fees, 6% was in support for alleged abusers and 2% went toward other costs. On average, only 16% of the costs related to the allegations was borne by insurance companies.
Jonathon Wiggins, a lead researcher on the report, told RNS that the report represented the Catholic Church’s superlative commitment to transparency. The report “is unprecedented by any non-governmental organization and is the largest effort of its kind,” the report’s authors wrote in a statement.
During the 20 years of the survey, the respondents reported 16,276 credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests, deacons or religious brothers. Those allegations represent slightly less than two-thirds (65%) of total allegations that dioceses, eparchies and men’s religious communities reported receiving.
Of the credible allegations, 4 in 5 victims were male, and one-fifth were female. More than half were between the ages of 10 and 14. About a quarter (24%) of victims were between 15 and 17 years old and another 1 in 5 was age 9 or younger.
Those financial troubles have led dioceses throughout the country to sell diocesan property, including diocesan headquarters, seminaries, schools and churches. In the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, every parish had to pay amounts ranging from five figures to more than $1 million toward a bankruptcy settlement.
Of all the survey years, 2019 had the highest number of credible allegations reported, with 2,506 credible allegations reported that year. That year came after a flood of revelations about the extent of sexual abuse in the church.
Many state investigations were opened after an August 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report found that there were more than 1,000 victims of child sexual abuse in that state and that Catholic bishops and other leaders had participated in a cover-up.
2018 was also the year that several dioceses found that the allegation that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had sexually abused a minor was credible, leading to McCarrick’s removal from the clerical state in February 2019.
https://religionnews.com/2025/01/15/more...ort-finds/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
