Study: Reports of abuse have cost the Church in the US US$5 billion in 20 years

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University revealed in the results of a landmark survey published this week that “dioceses, eparchies and religious communities of men” have reported since 2004 US$5,025,346,893 in payments related to allegations of minor abuse.

Those payments include “settlements paid to victims, other payments to victims, support to offenders (and) attorneys’ fees,” as well as other costs, CARA said.

Although that enormous sum has been paid in the last two decades, the vast majority of the alleged abuses occurred much earlier: 80% of the alleged crimes took place in the 1980s or decades earlier.

The findings are the result of two decades of annual surveys conducted by CARA. The annual survey collects “information on reports of sexual abuse of minors by priests and deacons that have been reported to dioceses and eparchies each year.”

The original survey was first commissioned in 2004 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The survey has been carried out in about 200 dioceses and eparchies and approximately 220 religious communities of men over 20 years. Respondents were asked to rate abuse allegations as “credible” or “unsubstantiated/obviously false,” as well as “impossible to prove.”

Since 2004, respondents have rated 16,276 complaints as “credible.” Most of the credible allegations were reported by dioceses and eparchies.

The survey noted that the number of credible allegations increased by 46% in its second decade, which CARA said was attributable in part to “the increased number of large state lawsuits and investigations, as well as the enactment by some state governments of temporary flexibilities of the statute of limitations for crimes and lawsuits”.

The results indicate that alleged abuses were drastically reduced in the Church in the United States during the transition from the 20th century to the 21st. According to CARA, “more than 9 in 10 of all credible allegations” occurred or began in 1989 or earlier. It is indicated that only 3% of the accusations have taken place since 2000.

Eighty percent of the alleged abuse victims were male, more than half were between 10 and 14 years old, and 20 percent were 9 years old or younger.

In total, the accusations affect a total of 4,490 alleged perpetrators, of which 95% are priests and 4% are religious brothers. Additionally, 1% of alleged abusers are deacons.

A total of 86% of all alleged perpetrators were identified in the survey as “deceased, already retired from ministry, already laicized, or missing.”

Dioceses spend hundreds of millions on abuse prevention efforts

While dioceses paid billions of dollars to respond to alleged victims of abuse, Church officials have also spent enormous sums to prevent further abuse over the past 20 years.

CARA respondents reported a total of $727,994,390 in spending on child abuse prevention and safety, an average of about $36,000,000 a year.

These expenses include “the salaries of safe environment and victim assistance coordinators, monitoring and other administrative expenses, training programs for adults and children, and background checks.”

The amount of money spent on abuse prevention has increased in recent years. In the first decade of the survey, dioceses reported spending on safe environments worth $259,771,061; That figure increased 80% in the second decade in which the survey was conducted, reaching $468,223,329.

In announcing the findings, CARA said the US Church’s effort “to address sexual abuse of minors by clergy and religious brothers and implement safeguards to prevent future abuse is unprecedented by any non-governmental organization and is the greatest effort of its kind.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops first promulgated policies to address child sexual abuse in the Church in 2002.

In its “Statute for the Protection of Children and Young People”, the Episcopate recognized that sexual abuse by clergy, as well as “the way these crimes and sins were dealt with,” have caused “enormous pain, anger and confusion to the victims, their families and the Church as a whole.”

“As bishops, we have recognized our errors and our role in that suffering; “We ask for forgiveness and take responsibility again for having frequently failed the victims and the Catholic people in the past,” the bishops wrote.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.