Abuse Cost Churches Nearly $467m in '05 Settlements spiked sharply, by Susan Milligan, Boston Globe, March 31, 2006

Abuse Cost Churches Nearly $467m in '05
Settlements spiked sharply

By Susan Milligan
Boston Globe
March 31, 2006

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/03/31/
abuse_cost_churches_nearly_467m_in_05/

WASHINGTON -- The church sexual abuse crisis cost Catholic dioceses and religious institutes nearly $467 million last year in settlements to victims, legal expenses, therapy, and training, a staggering amount in the aftermath of the abuse scandal that surfaced in 2002, according to an independent audit released yesterday by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The data, collected by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, also showed that 783 new and credible allegations of sexual abuse by clergy were reported last year, down from 1,092 allegations reported in 2004 and bringing the total number of accusations to more than 12,000 nationwide since 1950.

While the number of allegations is decreasing, the financial cost to the church increased over the last year due to some large settlements paid in 2005, said Teresa M. Kettelkamp, director of the USCCB's Office of Child and Youth Protection. The church paid more than $399 million last year in settlements alone, and spent $67 million more on therapy for victims, legal fees, and counseling for offenders, according to the data.

The audit's results bring the total cost of the church sexual abuse crisis to nearly $1.2 billion, not including undisclosed payments the church made during 2003 and this year.

"It is disheartening to us bishops, as it must be to all Catholics, to find that there are still some allegations of abuse by clerics against today's children and young people," said Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the bishops' conference. Skylstad is himself the subject of a sex abuse allegation that he has vigorously denied, and his Spokane, Wash., diocese is in bankruptcy. But he said that "only a small minority of Catholic clergy" have been accused or convicted of sexual abuse, which he described as a problem that extends well beyond the church.

Faced with explosive evidence that priests had been abusing hundreds of children for decades without serious consequences, the church issued formal guidelines to its dioceses in 2002 meant to detect and prevent such abuse. The document, called the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, urges dioceses to immediately report and take action when sexual abuse allegations are made, as well as ensure that church personnel are properly screened, and offer help to any abuse victims.

But 12 percent of dioceses are not following all of the guidelines in the plan, according to a separate audit released yesterday by the Winthrop-based Gavin Group. That report is the third such audit of compliance by dioceses since the charter was issued; last year, more than 95 percent of dioceses had reported they were in compliance.

Further, two dioceses -- including an Eastern Rite Catholic church headquartered in Roslindale -- refused to participate in the audit, and the vast majority of dioceses provided their own information to the auditors instead of being subjected to visits from investigators, according to the report.

As a result, victims' groups were suspicious of the findings, which they said most likely understated the problem.

"Because the dioceses were being allowed to fill out questionnaires as opposed to on-site visits taking place, the number of sexual abuse victims, although staggering, is probably defective and low. On-site visits would be much more effective in determining the number of sexual abuse claims," said Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney representing many of the sexual abuse claimants.

"The fact that they're not complying reflects on how cold and indifferent they are to the sexual abuse crisis involving innocent, vulnerable children," he said. "Maybe the reason the church is not being trusted is that they allowed 12,000 children to be sexually abused by priests."

The bishops' conference noted that only those dioceses found to be in full compliance with the guidelines in 2004 were allowed to conduct their own surveys.

Both the report by the Gavin Group, as well as a separate data analysis by John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, suggest that reports of abuse are waning. The college, in a new analysis of data collected from abuse cases that occurred between 1950 and 2002, found that the number of reported molestations spiked in the 1970s and 1980s before falling steadily.

The trend mirrors statistics for overall criminal behavior, sexual abuse, and "general deviance" in the country during that era, said Margaret Leland Smith, data analyst for the report.

While current reports of abuse appear to be declining, "800 new allegations is still a shocking number," said Susan Archibald, president of The Linkup-Healing Alliance, a victims group. "Despite the fact that the numbers may be going down, we're still in the middle of a crisis."

The Gavin Group assessment cited the Archdiocese of Boston for failing to provide "safe environment training" for children, parents, and church personnel to prevent sexual abuse. The Archdiocese, which announced last week that the assessment found it was not in compliance, said in a statement that a portion of parochial school and religious education students had not received the training. Such training will begin immediately, Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley said in the statement, adding that "anything short of full compliance is unacceptable."

Patricia O. Ewers, chair of the National Review Board for the Protection of Children, said the audit did not go far enough. While the annual study records whether dioceses have adopted the directives in the 2002 charter, "it has not examined the effectiveness of thee measure," said Ewers, whose group collaborates with the USCCB on the charter. She called for "reworking" the audit process.

The John Jay College analysis provided some insights into sexually abusive clergy, finding that on average, such abusers had begun to offend after 11 years on the job. The largest portion of first-time offenders -- 22 percent -- were between 30 and 34 years of age.

Those who had the greatest numbers of allegations against them tended to abuse younger children and were more likely to victimize boys than girls, according to the college researchers.