Total Number of Newly Accused Clerics in 2011 Greater Than Number of Newly Ordained Priests

By Peter Isely
SNAP Wisconsin
April 10, 2012

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New internal data released by the US Catholic Bishops today reveals that the total number of Catholic clergy who have raped or sexually assaulted children or minors over the past several decades is now 6,115 (a careful breakdown of the numbers in the report can be found at BishopAccountabilty.org). The number of accused clerics is, of course, larger.

Last year, 270 never before identified priests were reported to have committed child sex crimes. 184 of these priests were officially but quietly removed from ministry because these reports of criminal behavior against children were found to be credible and actionable. Quietly, that is, unless parishioners and the public found out about it.

In fact, the total number of newly accused clerics in the US for child sex abuse last year was virtually identical to the total number of newly ordained diocesan priests. The 275 newly ordained diocesan priests in the US outnumbered the number of newly accused child sex offender priests by only five. And, for every one or two priests ordained last year in the US, another priest was taken out of ministry for having sexually assaulted a child.

Each year since 2002, when American Catholics demanded that the bishops begin to take public responsibility for the child sex abuse crisis, 1,723 newly named clerical offenders have been identified — on average 181 new child sex offender priests each year. That trend shows no signs of abating, and with a 15% increase this year, there are likely hundreds of child sex offenders still in Catholic ministry today.

Absent from the bishops’ yearly report, once again, is the number of Vatican officials, cardinals, bishops, or church officials last year who have been disciplined, dismissed, or removed from office for knowingly concealing and transferring these child sex offenders. That number if reported would be “zero.” That’s the same number, incidentally, as in all the other yearly reports the bishops have issued.

Maybe that is why, after decades of seemingly endless accommodation to Catholic officials, law enforcement agencies are finally investigating and prosecuting senior managers and bishops who have covered up child sex crimes, as in the landmark prosecutions this year underway in Philadelphia and Kansas City.

And that, by far, is the single most promising development in the US Catholic church’s child sex abuse crisis in a long time.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 23 years and have more than 10,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Visit us at SNAPnetwork.org and SNAPwisconsin.com.