Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church Is Widespread (From Child Abuse: Opposing Viewpoints, P 158-166, 1994, David Bender and Bruno Leone, eds. -- See NCJ-159823)
Catholic church officials have ignored or denied priest pedophilia and have often responded by moving offending priests from place to place, allowing them access to new victims. These actions by the church have made it difficult to prosecute or even to force the acknowledgment of child sexual abuse by priests. Payouts related to charges of child abuse by priests may total
$1 billion over the next 5 years. The Catholic church has historically failed to deal seriously with lawsuits, litigation, and civil responsibility but is now beginning to recognize the seriousness of the child sexual abuse problem. Child sexual abuse by priests is discussed in terms of the reluctance of law enforcement to actually arrest and prosecute priests, the loyalty of church members, and difficulties in jury selection for cases involving priests. Legal tactics of the Catholic church are considered, and the need for the church to deal openly with the problem of child sexual abuse by priests is stressed.
IN Los Angeles alone
To ease the stress on the legal system and to give victims the resources that they need to support a case, large groups of victims have banded together to file class-action lawsuits. One of the largest settlements involved the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and awarded
$600 million to a group of more than
500 victims abused by 221 individual clergy members. Victims also have filed many individual cases against clergy members.
So how is the Catholic Church in New York doing with pedophilia?
US Catholic diocese agrees to pay $323m to child sexual abuse survivors. A Roman Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York, announced a new bankruptcy settlement on Thursday that would pay more than
$323m to about 530 sex abuse survivors who alleged they were abused by priests when they were children.
The Illinois dioceses have paid millions in settlements to abuse survivors, while the Chicago Archdiocese has paid more than $200 million to settle abuse claims.
But what about Chicago?
The Illinois dioceses have paid millions in settlements to abuse survivors, while the Chicago Archdiocese
has paid more than $200 million to settle abuse claims.
Archdiocesan officials believe the archdiocese may end up paying
more than $150 million to settle future claims.
Archdiocesan officials believe the archdiocese may end up paying more than $150 million to settle future claims.