Report: 20 years of data shows clerical abuse allegations down in US
CARA released a 20-year summary of annual data for the USCCB’s yearly report on the implementation of Dallas Charter
A new report confirms OSV News’ previous finding that U.S. Catholic dioceses and eparchies have paid more than $5 billion to settle abuse claims filed over the past two decades — but credible allegations have declined significantly over the same period, with the majority of cases preceding a landmark set of anti-abuse protocols established by the U.S. bishops in 2002.
Catholic dioceses, eparchies and parishes in the U.S. have “changed how they do things” in terms of addressing and preventing abuse, said Jonathan L. Wiggins, sociologist and director of parish surveys at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
On Jan. 15, CARA — which conducts social scientific studies on the Catholic Church — released a 20-year summary of annual data for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ yearly report on the implementation of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”
The document — adopted by the USCCB in 2002, and commonly called the Dallas Charter — lays out a comprehensive set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy. The charter also includes guidelines for reconciliation, healing, accountability and prevention of abuse.
CARA’s two-decade review of the numbers indicates that the charter is working, and that the Catholic Church in the U.S. is making real progress in eradicating the scourge of clerical abuse, Wiggins said.
Since 2004, CARA has collected and prepared data for the USCCB on the charter’s implementation, using both web-based and mail-in surveys.
The CARA surveys complement the annual audit of dioceses and eparchies conducted by a USCCB-commissioned third-party firm, which since 2011 has been StoneBridge Business Partners, a Rochester, New York-based consulting firm that provides forensic and compliance services to a range of organizations. (Religious communities of men do not participate in the Dallas Charter audit process, but many instead seek separate accreditation for commonly accepted abuse prevention and protocols.)
Response rates for CARA’s voluntary annual surveys have averaged 99% for dioceses and eparchies and 72% for religious communities of men, according to the CARA summary report.
According to the report, dioceses, eparchies and religious communities spent a total of almost $728 million over the past 20 years in safe environment salaries, training programs and background checks. Those costs increased 80% over the span of the report period.
For the period 2004-2023, a total of 16,276 allegations of abuse of minors by priests, deacons and religious were deemed credible by dioceses, eparchies and religious communities in the U.S. — 82% by dioceses and eparchies, and 18% by religious orders.
But, CARA stressed, “to be clear, these credible allegations of abusive behaviors did not occur over the 20 years of the survey, but rather over the more than 80 years asked about on the annual surveys.”
During the 20-year survey period, said the report, “a majority of dioceses, eparchies, and religious communities of men did not have a credible allegation, with an average of three in five (60%) having no allegations in a particular survey year.”
The summary report said that “more than nine in ten of all credible allegations occurred or began in 1989 or earlier (92%), 5% occurred or began in the 1990s, and 3% occurred or began since the year 2000.”
Most of the alleged perpetrators — 86% — “were identified as ‘deceased, already removed from ministry, already laicized, or missing,’” said the report.
That figure is “not surprising,” said CARA in its Jan. 15 media release, “as about seven-tenths (72%) of the alleged abuses occurred in 1979 or earlier, 20 to 50 years before the first CARA survey was conducted in 2004.”
The other 14% were “permanently removed from ministry or retired from ministry during the year” of that particular survey, said the report.
The report also found that 95% of the alleged abusers were priests, with 80% diocesan and 15% religious, while 4% were religious brothers and 1% were diocesan or religious deacons.