NEW MEXICO
The Daily Times
By Hannah Grover The Daily Times
Updated: 09/13/2013
FARMINGTON — In the 1980s, when a Louisiana family filed a lawsuit against a Catholic diocese for covering up a priest’s sexual abuse, it shocked the nation.
It was the first such lawsuit. Although the family had not initially considered legal action, the diocese’s unresponsiveness pushed them forward.
Thousands more would follow.
Since then, nearly 15,000 victims have come forward, according to BishopAccountability.org, a project focused on collecting data on the sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Between 1984 and 2009, more than 3,000 lawsuits were filed in the United States, and the church has paid more than $3 billion in settlements and awards.
As more cases came to light, John Jay College of Criminal Justice conducted a study to look at priest sex abuse between 1950 and 2002.
The study found that only 4 percent of the all the priests in the priesthood had been accused of abusing a child.
And the Diocese of Gallup, which encompasses the Farmington area, has not gone unscathed. A series of sex abuse lawsuits caused it to declare bankruptcy earlier this month.
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