Catholics Cracking Down on Child-Molesting Priests

WASHINGTON —  The Roman Catholic Church, faced with increasing reports of child molestation cases involving priests, said this week that dioceses are cracking down on offenders, “including suspension from employment and from active ministry whenever appropriate.”

Sexual abuse of children “affects both men and women without regard to whether they are married, single or celibate,” the U.S. Catholic Conference said in a statement. “Tragically, it has occurred in persons who are leaders of the community and others who have been placed in positions of great trust.”

The conference said it “has no reliable estimate for either the number of cases or persons involved, other than what is reported.” But it referred to an alarming increase in reports of the sexual abuse of children and said “even one report . . . is cause for concern because it indicates that a child has been victimized.”

Catholic Conference counsel Mark E. Chopko, who drafted the statement, said it is designed to counter criticism that bishops have not been responding to problems. “The conference has been responding, but privately,” he said.

“There is an increase in reported incidents,” he said. “Most of the institutes that study child abuse will say that in the period from 1980 to the present there has been a remarkable increase in the number of reported cases. Whether this means more cases, or that people are more aware of the problem and are reporting it more often, is a question that experts are pondering.”

In December, the San Jose Mercury-News published a series of articles that said that while national awareness of child abuse is increasing, the Catholic Church “continues to ignore and cover up cases of priests who sexually molest children.”

One article said that in more than 25 dioceses, church officials failed to notify authorities, shifted priests involved to other parishes, ignored parents’ complaints and disregarded potential damage to child victims.

In January, the National Catholic Reporter reported that at least 135 cases of sexual molestation by priests were reported from 1983 to 1986, and that more than $20 million was paid to victims in civil suits, some of which were settled out of court. There are 54,000 priests in the United States.

“Medical evidence shows that most offenders were themselves victims of abuse as children,” the Catholic Conference statement said. “The conference’s efforts have been, and will continue to be, directed towards assisting those involved to break that cycle here and now, through positive programs of prevention and education.”

Under church law, each diocese is independent and the Catholic Conference is not a national governing board. But the conference provides guidance and its general counsel has provided confidential advice to local church attorneys and officials.

“Pedophilia is neither a church nor a clerical problem exclusively, but one affecting religious and secular groups alike,” the statement said.

Activities on the local level have included education of diocese personnel, development of guidelines governing reporting of abuse “and the dioceses’ response to specific complaints, including suspension from employment and from active ministry whenever appropriate.”