1000s of Catholic priesthood abused kids in their care


REUTERS , WASHINGTON
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004,Page 7
"It's always bad when a child is abused, but when the abuser
wears a collar, it's worse. Much of the blame ... must be placed on
the higher-ups."

Robert Bennett, attorney on a panel probing child abuse

More than 10,600 children said they were molested by priests since
1950 in an epidemic of child sexual abuse involving at least 4
percent of US Roman Catholic clergy, two studies reported on Friday.

The reports' release brought an apology from Bishop Wilton Gregory,
president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and complaints
from victims that the reports had focused on the abusers but not on
the bishops who failed to stop them.

One of the reports, written by researchers at the John Jay College of
Criminal Justice in New York, revealed that 10,667 children were
allegedly abused by 4,392 priests from 1950 to 2002. But the report
said the figures depend on self-reporting by the bishops and were
probably an undercount.

This study found reports of abuse peaked with the ordination class of
1970, from which one in 10 priests was eventually accused of abuse.

Most victims were male, and of those, the largest single age group
was boys from 11 to 14 years old. Alleged abuse ranged from touching,
with or without clothing, to oral sex and sexual intercourse.

Some US$572 million has been paid in damages to abuse victims, the
report said. But it noted that this did not include US$85 million
paid by the Archdiocese of Boston, where the sex-abuse scandal first
grabbed headlines two years ago, and that 14 percent of dioceses were
not able to provide figures.

The finding that at least 4 percent of American Roman Catholic
priests were involved in child sexual abuse differs markedly from the
figure of "less than 1 percent" offered in 2002 by Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith.

The second report, a 145-page examination of the causes and context
of the priestly sexual abuse crisis, was crafted by a panel of
prominent Catholics who found systemic problems in the way candidates
for the priesthood were chosen and guided.

"It's always bad when a child is abused, but when the abuser wears a
collar, it's worse," said attorney Robert Bennett, a member of the
panel. "Much of the blame, unfortunately ... must be placed on the
higher-ups."

The panel found two main factors contributing to priestly child
sexual abuse, Bennett said at a news conference: Dioceses failed to
keep those "dysfunctional and psycho-sexually immature men" out of
the priesthood, and candidates for the priesthood were ill-prepared
for lives of celibacy in a highly sexualized age.