UNITED STATES
News & Observer
BY TERESA WELSH
twelsh@mcclatchy.com
Complaints of sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy were up 35 percent in 2015, according to an audit of claims and related settlements released Friday.
Between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015, 838 people filed complaints saying they had been abused by church personnel while they were children. This is up from 620 complaints filed the year before.
Twenty-six reports were from minors alleging recent abuse, but the majority were claims dating back to the 1960s, 70s and 80s. The rise in claims dating back decades is partially attributed to bankruptcy proceedings in dioceses around the country that can lead people to file complaints when they otherwise may have kept silent, due to the possibility the diocese would no longer have money to pay out a settlement if the claims were found to be substantiated.
The report was produced by an independent auditor, StoneBridge Business Partners, commissioned to evaluate church compliance with the U.S. bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. This is the 13th year the church has produced the report, which was mandated in 2002 following major revelations of the widespread nature of sexual abuse throughout the church.
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