Catholic abuse crisis tied to 4% of priests

A national, church-sanctioned study documenting sex abuse by U.S. Roman Catholic clergy found that about 4 percent of clerics have been accused of molesting minors since 1950, a diocese said Thursday.

The Diocese of Yakima, Wash., said in a news release that the survey compiled by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice found 4,392 of the 109,694 clergy who served over that five-decade period faced allegations of abuse.

The survey was overseen by the National Review Board, a lay watchdog panel the bishops formed at the height of the abuse crisis. The review board had a news conference scheduled in Washington this morning to discuss the report and a companion study on how the crisis developed.

Dioceses nationwide received 10,667 abuse claims since 1950, according to the news release. Of those, claims by 6,700 were substantiated. About 3,300 were not investigated because the accused clergymen were dead.

About 1,000 claims proved to be unsubstantiated, the diocese said. The national report also tallied abuse-related costs at $533.4-million.

The Associated Press reported other findings from the John Jay tally of abuse cases and the report on causes, citing a source it did not identify that it reported had read both reports.

The causes report places much of the blame on bishops, according to the AP's source, saying moral laxity in disciplining offenders created an atmosphere that allowed the crisis to occur.

The report acknowledges some bishops recognized the gravity of the problem early on and spent years lobbying the Vatican to change church law so they could move faster against abusers.

The raw numbers of abuse claims and accused clergy are higher than previously estimated by the media, victims groups and church officials.

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