When will it ever end?

Costs Soar As Clergy Sex Abuse Cases Rise

By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion WriterThu Mar 30, 5:10 PM ET

New figures released Thursday by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops
show the unrelenting toll of the clergy sex abuse crisis: 783 new
credible claims last year, most of which date back decades, and costs of
nearly $467 million.

While researchers who analyzed 50 years of data on molestation claims
concluded the number of new cases is declining, the church is still
paying a heavy price for predatory clergy.

The abuse problem was already known to have cost dioceses more than $1
billion since 1950, including some expenses paid last year. Still,
Teresa Kettelkamp, director of the bishops' Office of Child and Youth
Protection, said the total abuse-related expenses shelled out in 2005
were likely the largest ever for a single year.

The total number of accusations against Catholic clergy now stands at
more than 12,000 since 1950.

The latest statistics were released as part of the third audit U.S.
bishops commissioned to restore trust in their leadership after abuse
allegations soared in 2002. Auditors found that 88.5 percent of dioceses
had put in place full safeguards for children required by the bishops'
reforms.

However, advocates for victims called the audit inadequate, since 104 of
the 195 American dioceses conducted a "self-audit." In previous years,
teams from the Gavin Group, a private firm led by former FBI agent
William Gavin, had conducted onsite audits in all participating dioceses.

Speaking at a news conference, Gavin and a key church official agreed
with the critics that the new report didn't capture the full picture.

They pointed to the recent failure of the Archdiocese of Chicago to
remove an accused priest from church work for four months until he was
criminally charged. The archdiocese was found to be in full compliance
in the 2005 audit, but an outside investigator hired by Chicago Cardinal
Francis George to look into the priest's case found a string of stunning
lapses by archdiocesan staff that left children at risk.

The failures had an impact beyond Chicago because George played a key
role in shaping the bishops' new discipline plan that permanently bars
guilty priests from church work. George also is the vice president of
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"To find that this happened in Chicago was a great sorrow and
disappointment to all of us," said Patricia Ewers, chairwoman of the
National Review Board, the bishops' lay watchdog panel. "If people do
not live up to their responsibilities, do not communicate effectively,
then you can have the kind of terrible consequences you have in Chicago."

Ewers said the Chicago case provided strong evidence that the bishops
need to expand the scope of their audits and measure whether child
protection programs are working. Gavin supported the idea, which will be
brought before the nation's bishops.

In a companion report, researchers from the John Jay College of Criminal
Justice, who the bishops had hired to tally abuse claims nationwide from
1950-2002, released a new analysis of that data which found the number
of new abuse cases peaked in the 1970s and 1980s and then began to
decline.

In 2004, dioceses received more than 1,092 new abuse claims, in addition
to the 10,667 claims the American church received from 1950-2002.
However, just like the claims in 2005, most of the allegations involved
incidents from decades ago.

"The decrease in sex abuse cases is real," said Karen Terry, principal
investigator on the study.

The bishops' abuse prevention policy requires dioceses to hire victim
assistance coordinators, form review boards to help evaluate abuse
claims, conduct background checks on staff and volunteers and teach
children to protect themselves from predators.

The biggest failure auditors found was that several dioceses don't have
full safe environment training for children, and four dioceses have not
fully complied with the call for background checks. The four dioceses
are Burlington, Vt.; Portland, Maine; Salina, Kan.; and the Apostolic
Exarchate for Armenian Catholics in New York.

Barbara Blaine, a found of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by
Priests, said none of the programs will work as long as no one is
monitoring the bishops who retain enormous discretion in overseeing
priests. Only the pope can discipline bishops.

Separately Thursday, the New Hampshire attorney general released an
independent audit her office conducted of sex abuse prevention in the
Manchester Diocese, finding that the church failed to make sure that
criminal background checks have been done on all employees and
volunteers who work with children.

The state audit was part of a 2002 agreement the diocese struck with
prosecutors to avoid criminal prosecution over failure to rein in
abusers.


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