The paedophilia scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church over the past year has touched virtually every US diocese, the New York Timesreported today.
The scandal involved more than 1,200 priests who have sexually victimized more than 4,000 children, the newspaper claimed.
An extensive survey conducted by the newspaper tallied 4,268 people who have claimed publicly or in lawsuits to have been abused by priests, although experts say there are likely many more who have remained silent, the newspaper reported.
Using court records, news reports, church documents and interviews, the Timessurvey found accusations of abuses in all but 16 of the 177 Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States.
Most priests accused of abuse were ordained between the mid-1950's and the 1970's, a period of upheaval in the church, when men trained in traditional seminary system were sent out to serve in a rapidly changing church and social culture.
Most of the abuse cases occurred in the 1970's and 1980's.
Although the problem involved only a small percentage of priests, it was deeply embedded in the insular culture of the Catholic priesthood, in which sexual secrets and transgressions were considered a matter for the confessional, not the criminal courts, the newspaper noted.
The survey determined that 1.8 per cent of all priests ordained from 1950 to 2001 had been accused of abuse, according to available data. But in dioceses that have divulged what they say are complete lists of abusive priests the percentages are far higher.
In Baltimore, Maryland, for example, an estimated 6.2 per cent of priests ordained in the last half-century have been implicated in the abuse of minors. In Manchester, New Hampshire, the figure is 7.7 per cent and in Boston it is 5.3 per cent.
AFP