How many priests have abused children?

Answer 1

The percentage of priests who have abused children is about the same, or less than the percentage of abusive men in the general population - about 4 percent. Sexual abuse is even more prevalent in Protestant and Jewish denominations but this is rarely reported.

Answer 2

The StatisticsIn 2004, the John Jay report (see link below) stated that "10,667 people in the US had made allegations of child sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002 against 4,392 priests"

Not all of them are necessarily guilty of the charge, while perhaps many more are yet to come to light. Many children/adults are embarrassed of sexual abuse and never speak of it.

NOTE: This is only a report of US allegations, Ireland comes in second for the most reports of sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church, and many, many other countries have similar reports.

Other estimates from Ireland put the figures at approximately 30,000, with similar numbers in Canada... (Source found at link below: www.molestedcatholics.com/Estimating-the-numbers.php)

Additional Input and Opinions:

• Too many. One child abused by a priest is one too many. This has been the most horrible scandal that the Church has had to face. Each and every soul is precious to God, particularly the children, and this crime is unspeakable; especially as priests are dedicated to God, and His representatives on earth. We must pray for these unfortunate individuals, and particularly for their victims. Satan's work is continuous and like an octopus with more tentacles than we can count, but against children is almost more than a soul can take. And that priests are the culprits is unbelievably loathsome.
• That said, this tragedy must stop - on all sides. That Satan is using the press and the public to continue persecuting the Church is also out of proportion. The tragedy of child abuse is mind numbing, and nothing can be worse than having those we trust most (priests) be perpetrators; but we must not become fixated on persecuting a church that is addressing this as well as the Catholic Church is, while completely ignoring all the other abusers. To abuse the Church while allowing this problem to flourish elsewhere is not exactly in the children's best interest and it must be addressed. It is not being addressed; as basically the press is beating a dead horse while allowing all the other horses out of the barn, if you will forgive a horrible metaphor.
• In addition, the actual number of priests who actually committed these atrocities was very low, especially as compared with other groups of men. Again I say, even one priest doing this is horrible; but we have dealt with this problem, let's move on to where problems still lay.
• It is sad that this has happened. It is even sadder that attempts continue to be made to cover up the extent of the problem or to discourage publication of the known statistics.

Answer 3

The Church's Code of Canon Law 1395:2 says, "A cleric who has offended in other ways against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, if the crime was committed by force, or by threats, or in public, or with a minor under the age of sixteen years, is to be punished with just penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state if the case so warrants."

In other words, the ecclesiastical punishment for a most serious criminal offence is equivalent to a slap on the wrist with a wet lettuce leaf. The Code does not even oblige the Church hierarchy to notify the police or civil authorities that they believe a criminal offence has been committed by one of their number.

With such ecclesiastical leniency, some priest can, and do, abuse large numbers of choir boys and altar boys. It should always be pointed out that the great majority of Catholic priests are decent men, but the Church allows their good name to be tarnished as long as it fails to cooperate with the police once it has grounds to suspect a crime has been committed.

Answer 4

Another answer from our community:

Zero. The Code of Canon Law 1395:2 specifies that sex between priests and minors is an ecclesiastical crime.