KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCUR
[with audio]
By Steve Bell
The ombudsman for the people of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic diocese to look into accusations of sexual abuse by clergy has released her first annual report. Jennifer Valenti received 79 reports of suspected sexual abuse and boundary violations in her first year of duty,
Almost half of of the total of 79 incidents reported involved suspected abuse in the home, according to the article published in the Catholic Key on Thursday. But ombudsman Jennifer Valentii says she did uncover 7 substantiated reports of church-relaed incidents of sexual abuse.
Valenti’s report says five persons that were named as abusers and that all of them were removed from whatever type of servivce.
But Valenti emphasizes that they weren’t all priests. Some were volunteers, she says, some members of religious orders. In cases where actual sexual abuse was suspected, she says law enforcement officials led any further investigation, but she, herself, looked into non-criminal cases of “boundary violations.”
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