Washington – The nation’s Roman Catholic leaders received 783 new claims of sex abuse by clergy in 2005, with most of the allegations involving cases that are decades old.
The new claims, reported Thursday, bring the total number of accusations against Catholic clergy to more than 12,000 since 1950.
The latest figures were released as part of the third audit U.S. bishops have ordered conducted to restore trust in their leadership after abuse allegations soared in 2002. Church leaders, however, drew criticism for changing how this latest review was conducted.
In the first two annual audits, nearly all 195 dioceses received a visit. During the most recent review, 104 dioceses were allowed to fill out a questionnaire instead while auditors visited others.
In Colorado, the church reported allegations against one archdiocesan priest and four religious order priests, but the exact number of allegations made during the reporting period that ended Sept. 1, 2005, was not disclosed.
The Denver Archdiocese said one allegation was for an alleged incident more than 25 years ago involving a priest who is no longer in the active ministry. Archdiocese spokeswoman Jeanette De Melo said the allegation was reported to law enforcement, but she declined to name the agency or the priest.
The archdiocese claimed it had no responsibility to report to law enforcement in the cases of the four allegations involving religious-order priests. De Melo declined to name the religious orders or the priests or say when the alleged incidents took place.
In the Pueblo Diocese, Monsignor Mark Plewka said the one allegation involved a religious- order priest in an incident in the 1980s. He declined to name the priest, the order and whether the allegation was reported to law enforcement.
The Colorado attorney general’s office said it has not received any allegations from the church in Colorado.
Roughly two dozen civil lawsuits were filed against the church in Colorado in 2005. Only one criminal case is active in Colorado, that of ex-priest Timothy Evans, accused of abusing a minor under his care in Fort Collins in 1999. Evans, who lives in Loveland and is no longer in the active ministry, has pleaded not guilty and will go to trial late this summer.
Jeb Barrett, Denver director of Surivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests, called the six allegations in Colorado “only the tip of the iceberg.”
“This is exactly why we need the names of the perpetrators, in order to encourage more victims to come out knowing they are not the only ones,” he said. “Some people will never come forward because they don’t see any hope for themselves.”
Denver Post staff writer Mike McPhee contributed to this report.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporter’s error, the name of the spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Denver was misspelled. Her name is Jeanette De Melo. Also, the story failed to indicate that allegations were reported against one archdiocesan priest and four religious order priests, but the exact number of allegations made during the reporting period that ended Sept. 1, 2005, was not disclosed.
