The United States arm of the Catholic Church paid more than $5 billion over 20 years for costs related to allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests and deacons, according to a study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Published this month, the 106-page report tracked and calculated the costs related to allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests and deacons reported by “dioceses, eparchies and religious communities of men” annually from 2004 to 2023.
Researchers found that the Catholic Church paid out just over $5,025,346,893.
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Some 87% of the payments — or more than $4.3 billion — were made by dioceses and eparchies, while other religious communities of men connected to the Catholic Church paid the remaining 13%, which amounted to $641,324,609.
“A combined three-fourths of these payments were for settlements paid to the victims (71%) and other payments to victims (4%). The other major category of costs paid out was attorneys’ fees (17%), which make up one-sixth of all of these costs,” the report notes.
Included in the cost for the sexual abuse of minors was also the cost of defending the alleged offenders, which researchers say was 6% of the cost. While insurance companies covered some of these costs, the bulk of the payments came from the dioceses, eparchies and religious communities of men. Just 16% of the costs related to the sexual abuse allegations were paid by insurance companies.
Just last September, the Diocese of Rockville Centre in Long Island, New York, the largest Catholic Diocese in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy, agreed to pay more than 600 survivors of sexual abuse a historic $320 million and invest in rigorous child protection protocols in a legal settlement.
“The credit for having saved so many kids in the future from the horrors inflicted on so many in the past goes to the courageous survivors for having fought, suffered, endured, and stood strong against darkness and deceit,” Jeff Anderson of Jeff Anderson & Associates told The Christian Post in a statement at the time.
“While there is a measure of accountability, the beneficiaries of this are the communities and the kids born and yet to be who are safer because of the exposure of the practices by the diocese and the bishops.”
The CARA report suggests that the exposure of clergy abuse over time appears to have served as a deterrent along with increased investment in child protection efforts by the church.
Costs related to allegations of sexual abuse of minors fell 17% in the second decade of the study compared with the first. The first decade of allegations cost the church over $2.7 million, while more than $2.2 million was paid out in the second. The church also spent 80% more on child protection efforts in the second decade of the study — over $468.2 million compared to the over $259.7 million spent on those efforts in the first decade.
Researchers also found a 46% increase in allegations deemed credible by dioceses, eparchies and religious communities of men from the first decade of the survey (6,621) to the second decade, when 9,655 were found credible from 2014-2023.
“At least some of this is attributable during that second decade to the greater number of large lawsuits and state investigations, as well as the enactment by some state governments of temporary relaxations of statutes of limitations on crimes and lawsuits,” researchers said.
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