NEWARK (NJ)
Star Ledger
February 14, 2019
By Stephen Stirling
The list spans nearly a century. It reaches across every corner of the state. And it reveals a tangled web of abuse allegedly carried out by scores of priests, some of whom were apparently shuffled from parish to parish.
The five Catholic Dioceses’ release of 188 priests and deacons who were credibly accused of sexually abusing children reverberates across generations of Catholics both in New Jersey and across the country, once again confronted with disheartening allegations against church leaders amid an ever-deepening scandal.
Even as details remain scant, an analysis of the information released by the Catholic Church Wednesday reveals what many expected — that in New Jersey, and, as has been shown elsewhere, allegations of sexual abuse date back decades and come out of every diocese and dozens of parishes.
Here are some of the key takeaways from our reporting, thus far.
Hundreds of victims
While very few details have been released about how many people came forward with abuse allegations, data shows 57 of the clergymen named by the church Wednesday have multiple accusers.
Taken with others that have a single accuser and the nearly half for whom no information was released, there are at least 245 alleged victims. The actual number is likely far higher.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.