கேவலமான கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரிகள்.

ரோட் ஐலண்ட் மாநிலத்தில் மட்டும் 1971இலிருந்து 2007வரைக்கும் 125 கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரிகள் பாலுறவு பலாத்கார குற்றம் சாட்டப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.

இதில் 95 பாதிரிகள் குழந்தைகளை பாலுறவு பலாத்காரம் செய்ததாக குற்றம் சாட்டப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.


New R.I. report raises questions on clergy abuse
Diocese says vague cases behind rise; AG concerned
Ann Hagan Webb (right) of Wellesley, who is a sexual abuse survivor, spoke yesterday during a press conference in Providence held by BishopAccountability.org. (STEW MILNE FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | October 20, 2007

Between 1971 and 2007, 125 priests in Rhode Island were accused of sexual assault or sexual misconduct, including 95 accused of child molestation or sexual assault of a minor, according to a court document filed by Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.

That number is higher than the 56 priests that Tobin's predecessor, Bishop Robert E. Mulvee, reported in 2004 as having been accused of sexual abuse of a minor between 1950 and 2002.

The diocese said yesterday that the discrepancy is because the number reported three years ago included only credible allegations, while the number in the more recent court filing included an unspecified number of allegations that were "vague, anonymous, withdrawn, or ultimately found to be false." The diocese also said the higher number, which it said was adjusted to 85 after a careful document review, also includes allegations made after 2002, when a large number of alleged victims came forward as the clergy sexual abuse crisis erupted nationally.

But Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch expressed concern about the previously unreported cases and said he intended to look into the matter.

BishopAccountability.org, a victim advocacy organization that maintains an electronic archive of abuse scandal documents, discovered the document in a court file and released it yesterday. The organization said it has calculated that more than 10 percent of Rhode Island priests have been accused of abuse since 1950, which could give the tiny state the highest rate of abuse allegations in the nation. By contrast, 4 percent of priests nationally and about 7 percent of priests in Boston were accused of abuse between 1950 and 2002.

The exact rate of alleged abuse in Rhode Island, the most Catholic state in the nation, is not possible to determine, because the diocese has not said how many priests served there since 1971 and has not revised Mulvee's figure of 56 accused priests since 1950 to reflect the new data contained in the court document.

Yesterday, victims' advocates called on federal or state officials in Rhode Island to launch an investigation into the conduct of the Providence Diocese, which includes the entire state. They said Rhode Island prosecutors have not conducted as thorough an investigation of the local church as have law enforcement officials in Boston, Philadelphia, and Manchester, N.H.

"The Providence Diocese is sitting on secrets of crime, and they don't have a right to these secrets anymore," said Anne Barrett Doyle, codirector of BishopAccountability.org. "This diocese is surely keeping secrets of men who are molesting today, and the diocese has such clout in Rhode Island that the only hope is going to be a prosecutor seeing it as his moral obligation to find out what secrets they're keeping."Continued...