BishopAccountability.org
	Rhode Island Diocese Doubles Number of Accused Priests Catholic World News October 22, 2007 http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=54303 Providence - Church officials in Providence, Rhode Island, have revealed that the number of priests accused of abusing children there is twice what had previously been acknowledged. In court papers filed in connection with an abuse victim's lawsuit, the Providence diocese said that 125 priests have been accused of molesting children between 1971 and 2006. That number dwarfs the total acknowledged in public statements released in 2004. The court papers — made public by the bishopaccountability.org web site, came in a petition submitted by lawyers for Bishop Thomas Tobin, appealing a court order that called for the release of diocesan records involving sex-abuse complaints against priests. The petition said that the request for documents was unduly burdensome, in light of the number of priests involved. In 2004 the Providence diocese reported that just 56 local priests had been accused of sexual abuse between the years 1950 and 2002. The much higher number cited in the court petition would suggest that 10% of the priests of the Providence diocese have been accused— the highest rate for any diocese in the country. Law-enforcement officials in Rhode Island expressed concern about the discrepancy in statistics provided by the diocese, and promised to investigate. The release of the new statistics came at the same time that the lliberal lay-activist group Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) held its convention in Providence. Sex-abuse victims, noting that the headline stories of the Providence diocese had little impact on the convention proceedings, charged that VOTF has lost interest in protecting the rights of victims.
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