IRELAND
Catholic World News
Dublin, Mar. 08 (CWNews.com) - More than 100 priests serving in the Dublin archdiocese have been accused or suspected of sexual abuse, and the Irish archdiocese has paid nearly $7 million to settle lawsuits against clerics, according to statistics released by the archdiocese.
The Dublin archdiocese released statistics on sex-abuse charges to the media after data that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin had provided to priests leaked to the press. The figures, based on the independent "Ferns Report," cover the time period from 1940 to the present.
During that time, 2,800 priests (1350 diocesan priests and 1450 members of religious orders) have served in the Dublin archdiocese. Allegations of sexual abuse have been made against roughly 3% of those priests.
The archdiocese has identified about 350 victims of clerical abuse, and has been unable to trace another 40 possible victims.