Church abuse 'wider than thought'

Scandals have rocked confidence in the clergy

At least 34 priests guilty of sexually abusing children remain in jobs within the US Roman Catholic Church, the Washington Post has reported.

And 218 priests have been removed from their positions this year because of allegations of child sexual abuse, the newspaper says.

Its survey of Catholic dioceses across the United States comes as the Church reels from accusations that it covered up allegations of child sex abuse.

Church leaders including Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law have been accused of covering up abuse

The Post also found that at least 850 US priests had been accused of sexual misconduct with minors since the early 1960s - considerably higher than previously disclosed.

About 300 US Catholic bishops will meet this week in Dallas, Texas, to debate and vote on a mandatory policy toward priests accused of sexual misconduct.

'Liability shield'

The Washington Post conducted its survey by contacting each of the 178 mainstream Roman Catholic dioceses across the US.

Of the 96 that responded, few provided information on financial settlements.

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, an 11-year-old support group that says it has 4,000 members, told the paper that the lack of information might reflect a deliberate strategy to shield the church from liability.

"It's ludicrous that you can't get very, very basic data such as the number of priests who've been defrocked or the number of criminal or civil abuse cases filed against priests," he said.

New rules

Last Tuesday, leaders of the US Catholic Church suggested that Pope John Paul II be asked to defrock any priest who commits any future sexual abuse of a minor, as well as any priest who has abused more than one child in the past.

Under the recommendations, US dioceses would be required to report accusations of child sex abuse to civil authorities.

Priests or other Church personnel accused of abuse should be removed from their posts while "credible allegations" were investigated, the bishops said in a draft proposal ahead of the Dallas meeting.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press news agency reports that at least 300 civil lawsuits alleging clerical sex abuse have been filed in 16 states since January, when the case of a paedophile priest in Boston led to claims against Roman Catholic dioceses across the US.

Lawyers say that several hundred more cases are being informally mediated between dioceses and alleged victims.

"It's off the charts," said Pat Schiltz, a Minnesota attorney who has defended dioceses against hundreds of abuse claims.