The Roman Catholic church in the United States paid out 615 million dollars (400 million euros) last year for child sex abuse cases involving members of the clergy, or 54 percent more than the previous year, an official report showed Friday.

Of the monies paid out by the church, 526 million dollars went to settling cases -- almost double the amount paid out in 2006, the annual report on how well the church is implementing a charter to protect youngsters said.

Around 23 million dollars was paid out for therapy for victims or support for accused offenders, and 60 million dollars for legal fees, said the report, which was commissioned by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The report showed that 689 :shock: new allegations of abuse were lodged last year -- three percent fewer than in 2006 -- but most involved cases dating back decades.

Most victims were male, and more than half were between the ages of 10 and 14 when the abuse began. :manson:

While the number of new allegations has declined from 2004 to 2007, costs related to allegations increased in the same period, the report said.

Between 2006 and 2007 alone, "expenditure related to allegations increased by 54 percent," due mainly to a near-doubling of the amount paid out for settlements in 2007, it said, showing that other pay-outs had fallen.

The annual report tracks progress made in implementing the Charter for the Protection of Children, which was adopted by the bishops in 2002 after the church was plunged into crisis when the Archbishop of Boston confessed that he had protected a priest he knew had sexually abused young members of his church.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the USCCB, said in a statement Friday that child protection was a priority for the bishops, and praised them for "working diligently to implement the Charter."

But Terry McKiernan, president of the organization Bishop Accountability, which documents the abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic church, said the report by the bishops was opaque and fudged the number of clergymen who have been accused of sexually abusing children.

"Because the report is only counting and not actually naming the priests, we are not able to determine which of these allegations pertain to priests already accused and which pertain to new priests," McKiernan told AFP by phone from Boston.

"This is nowhere near a complete accounting from the bishops conference, but it's better than nothing," he said.

McKiernan estimated that more than 5,000 priests out of nearly 41,500 across the United States have been denounced for sexually abusing children since the 1950s.

"We know that the number is considerably over 5,000 now, and that, on the basis of annual adjustments since the John Jay report came out in 2004," McKiernan said.

A report commissioned in 2004 by the USCCB from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Washington found that nearly 4,400 priests had been accused of abuse.

This year's progress report was published just weeks before Pope Benedict XVI was due to visit the United States.

The visit next month will take him to New York and Washington, but not Boston.

"It's hard to not read the visit to New York, where there is a real hold-out among the American episcopate -- Archbishop Edward Egan, who has been very restrictive about information that might get out about this -- as a reward, and the skipping of Boston as expressing a desire not to confront the issue," said McKiernan.

"I don't hope for any gestures on the part of the pope," he added. "Remedies are going to come through the legal system, not through the church."

Yahoo news

well this is a shocker.. :shock:


NOT

And the Devil, I mean Pope, still wears Prada.

Speaking of which, my parents raised me as a very orthodox protestant christian and in church we learned that the Pope was the anti-Christ. For real! :lol2:

The journey of my life can be seen in the documentary 'Jesus Camp'.

Where do you put your picture of George Bush to pray to? :Topaz:

I'm praying to Madonna nowadays. :spank:

Why is a Catholic priest like acne?
They both come on a boy's face when he reaches 13.

How do you get a nun pregnant?
Dress her as an altar boy.

:lmao:

Fucking disgusting

:lmao:

It';s becoming increasing obvious that religion is an unforgiveably evil institution.

Religion has nothing of value to offer society. All it offers is hatred, division and abuse.

Saying religion is evil is such a lazy stance.

You can;t stop it so why bother questioning it? :stir:

Pretty much every war ever is somehow related to religion. So why is it lazy to acknowledge the lack of any redeeming features in it?

(Or are you arguing simply because you're still annoyed about boring old Tibet?)

And religion CAN be stopped. Communism pretty much killed the Christian church all across the Soviet Union. Communism was very cruel but the death of religion was one of its few redeeming features.

I don't want a return to communism but I would think that a concerted promotion of atheism in schools and education would be a good 1st step to eradicating the cancer of religion

It's the principle of it which seems to be totally lost on you :(

Mary.

:clap:

Mary? :unsure:

:files:

I'm lost... someone help :(

I just got back from Rome and I'm on a Roman Catholic kick. :lol2: I say do away with the institution but keep the art.

NOT ONE OF U FAGS CAN RUN UR FYCK BOX SINCE U DIRTY AMERICANS R VOTING FOR A NEGROID RACIST

And there you have it.

:lmao:

Oh yes Bradley, that's a wonderful way of looking at things.

We apparently can't stop violence against gays either, so should we not question that as well?

:rolleyes:

It didn't kill off the church in the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church is enjoying a renaissance after communism collapsed in on itself, so the Christians had the last laugh, and the Communist Party in Poland failed abysmally to challenge the hold the Catholic Church has on Polish society.

The Communists' imposition of militant atheism was no better than the worst kind of religious zealotry. Karl Marx himself said that religion was necessary in an unjust society and called it the heart of a heartless world. Maybe he didn't think it was all that bad, really.

I had to go to St. Peter's Square for the Pope's blessing last week and everyone was bringing things they wanted the Pope to bless. My teacher asked me if I was bringing anything, I said "Hell no!". I got in trouble.

The end.

You should have said, "Yeah, my cock."

Oh you poor thing. He was being ironic. :wub:

If the pope bless my cock it'd go limp. :drama: