Hi, Ed- Here's what I said above:

The 2004 John Jay Report says that 74 percent of U.S. Catholic dioceses had made payment for victim treatment. I'm sure that some of those dioceses didn't pay much; and the fact that 26 percent of dioceses paid nothing, is indeed deplorable. The 200-page PDF of the John Jay Report is available here (click). Information on treatment and compensation of victims begins on page 103.

In 2002, the bishops of the U.S. commissioned the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (of the City University of New York) to do a study of the sexual abuse of children in the U.S. Catholic Church. I hadn't known it, but John Jay is a public institution, not affiliated with the Catholic Church. The study was extensive, and it is widely respected.

The Jay report shows the numbers of offenders to be much smaller than some would have you think, but they are still alarming. The study said that four percent of U.S. priests had had sex at least once with a minor under the age of 18. Four percent doesn't sound like much. In my diocese, new priests have training assignments to three different parishes during their first five years of priesthood. Considering that U.S. parishes have from 500 to 1500 families or more, that's exposing young priests to a large number of children - and many of those parishes have schools, which compounds the number of contacts with children and the number of possible victims. So, although the percentage of priests offending is about the same as the percentage of offenders among U.S. men in general, priests have contact with a huge number of potential victims, and so the damage done by a single offender can be phenomenal. That's why organizations that serve children must have such strict controls - because a single offender can do so much damage, and because it's so hard to predict in advance who is going to be a sex offender and who is not.

Ed, note that I said that 74 percent of dioceses paid at least something to provide for treatment for victims. I did not find information on the percentage of victims that were offered counseling, or on the quality of treatment provided. It could be that the 26 percent that did not pay for counseling, had internal staff provide counseling. To my mind, it is appalling that 26 percent of dioceses did not offer any sort of treatment, but that's what the numbers lead me to believe - that's potentially a huge number of victims who were not offered treatment. I suppose you may be surprised that there were so many dioceses that offered treatment, but that number sounds about right to me. Press coverage can easily lead people to believe that molestation of children and the coverup of such crimes has been the rule in the Catholic Church, not the exception. Most people do the right thing, and most priests and nuns and even most bishops are not evil or inhuman - but a few offenders can affect a huge number of victims.

-Joe-