NEW YORK — The price for failing to rein in predatory clergy keeps rising for the U.S. Roman Catholic Church.
The church has paid more than $2.6 billion in settlements and related expenses since 1950, according to an annual report released Friday by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The costs to dioceses and religious orders dropped in 2008 by 29 percent, to about $436 million. But 2007 was an unusually high year, when the Archdiocese of Los Angeles began paying its $660 million settlement to about 500 people.
“The overall costs are still very high,” said Mary Gautier of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. She compiles the statistics on claims and expenses each year.
New allegations continue to pour in, seven years after the abuse scandal erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston. The crisis put an unrelenting spotlight on the problem and inspired victims to come forward by the hundreds.
“It’s proof that victims come forward only when they’re able,” said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
The number of claims rose last year by 16 percent to 803. As in previous years, nearly all the new cases were brought by adults who said they were abused as children decades ago. Dioceses and religious orders said 98 of the new allegations could not be proved or were deemed false.
Most of the accused are dead, missing or already out of public ministry or the priesthood.
