NEW YORK (NY)
CBS News
February 21, 2019
By Matthew Sheridan, Elizabeth Gravier and Alexandra Myers
In the past six months, authorities and Catholic Church dioceses across the U.S. have said that credible accusations of abuse have been made against more than 2,600 priests and other church employees over a span of several decades, according to a CBS News tally. The number includes sexual abuse accusations made against 301 priests over 70 years that a Pennsylvania grand jury revealed last summer.
Since then, individual dioceses and archdioceses across the country have been reviewing their files and releasing lists of people who they said face credible allegations of abuse. The issue has prompted Pope Francis to call church leaders from all over the world to the Vatican for a summit that started Thursday.
Between the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury investigation on Aug. 14, and Monday of this week, dioceses in two states have each named more than 300 people who have been accused of abuse. In New York, dioceses have named a total of 343 people, and Texas dioceses have named 304.
Dioceses in 31 other states and Washington, D.C., have come forward with what they said they’ve found in their files. The findings range from Mississippi, where the diocese of Biloxi said in January that credible allegations have been made against three priests since 1989, to California, where the diocese of Oakland on Monday released a list of 45 clergy members accused of abuse dating back to the 1960s.
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