CATHOLIC CHURCH SEX ABUSE

If you or a loved one were sexually abused as a minor by a member of the Catholic Church, you do not have to suffer in silence. Many state legislators across the country recently passed laws opening new windows of opportunity for sexual abuse survivors. These new laws may mean you have a second chance to pursue justice against your abuser and the Catholic Church for your abuse.

Allegations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church first surfaced in the United States, but it quickly turned into a global issue as survivors in Ireland, Italy, Australia, and elsewhere stepped forward.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 16,787 people in the U.S. alone have come forward saying they were sexually abused by priests as a minor between 1950 and 2012. This number could be far higher, as the number did not include survivors who came forward in 2003, and many cases of abuse, especially in religious institutions, go unreported.

Testimonies from abuse survivors within the Catholic Church say reports of abuse are treated horribly by Church hierarchy. Victims who report abuse to Church leaders often get dismissed, since the Church sets impossible, vague standards to determine which cases are "credible" or not.

Even if an abuse report gets acknowledged, Church officials have been found to silence the reports through transferring accused priests to new parishes, where they were free to abuse more children. In many cases, the Catholic clergy failed to report abuse allegations to local authorities, taking the power upon themselves to validate or dismiss claims. For this reason, hundreds of predator priests walked free without any consequences for their crimes.

Due to the tireless work of advocates and abuse survivors coming forward and sharing their stories, the media and U.S. law enforcement agencies have started to realize the seriousness of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. In fact, in response to the public's overwhelming push for the Catholic Church to respond and hold themselves accountable for perpetuating sexual abuse, many Catholic dioceses in the U.S. have released massive lists containing the names of priests credibly accused for sexual abuse.

In one of the largest list reveals in the US, in February 2019 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn released the names of over 100 priests and other clergy members credibly accused of sexually abusing a child. The list covers allegations spanning decades and includes the names of priests who served in many of the Catholic schools and parishes neighboring the diocese. The diocese, one of the largest in the nation, covers the entirety of Brooklyn and Queens within its zone. This section contains over a million people who identify with Catholicism, all impacted by the Church's shocking reveal.

While cases of sexual abuse have come up in the past, the massive release of names and cases shocked the nation. Other Dioceses across the U.S. released similar disclosures following the Brooklyn list, including Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana, etc. The number of names on each state's disclosures usually traipses upwards of hundreds of names. Types of religious roles held and blatantly abused by these child sex abusers include Catholic priests, nuns, deacons, bishops, etc. These men and women violated Church member's trust and deliberately used their religious status to victimize impressionable youth. The Brooklyn diocese's list covers the 166-year existence of the diocese, and other diocese's lists cover even more years.

However, many child sex abuse advocates and survivors fear the lists Catholic dioceses release could be incomplete or too carefully curated. Since the Catholic Church took so long to release these lists, supporters and advocates worry that names may be intentionally missing or that information about the explicit, detailed natures of the accusations remain absent from the list. Additional innocents' stories could be swept under the rug from the lack of information or from victims being afraid or too traumatized to report their story.