Catholic church audit shows spike in sex abuse reports

An annual audit of reports of sexual abuse by members of the U.S. Roman Catholic clergy shows sharp increases in the number of new claims and in the value of settlements to victims.

The audit, released on Friday (May 20), showed that 838 people came forward from July 1, 2014, through June 30, 2015, to say they had been sexually abused by priests, deacons or members of religions orders while they were children, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said.

That is up 35 percent from 620 new reports of abuse a year earlier, an increase that the bishops said largely reflected a large number of claims in six dioceses that had either filed for bankruptcy or were located in states that opened windows allowing victims to sue over old cases of sexual assault....
http://religionnews.com/2016/05/20/catholic-church-audit-shows-spike-in-sex-abuse-reports/