Nearly 4,400 people have been abused by Catholic priests in Italy in reported cases since 2020, a group of victims said Friday, renewing pressure on bishops to address a crisis that has long plagued the world’s largest Christian faith.
The unofficial count of Rete l’Abuso, Italy’s largest group of victims of religious abuse, is based on testimonies from victims, judicial sources and cases reported by the media, said the association’s founder, Francesco Zanard,i.
Rete l’Abuso did not specify how far back the alleged cases of abuse occurred.
The Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), which was criticized last week by the Vatican’s child protection commission, had no comment on the findings, a spokesperson said.
Most allegations involve abuse by priests
The global Catholic Church has been rocked for decades by scandals involving pedophile priests and the cover-up of their crimes, but local church leaders in Italy have been less willing to confront the problem.
New Pope Leo, who met for the first time this week with survivors of clergy sexual abuse, has asked the Church’s new bishops not to hide their allegations of misconduct. His predecessor, the late Pope Francis, made the issue a priority during his 12-year pontificate, but with mixed results.
In a particularly critical report on the issue released October 16, the Vatican’s child protection commission said only 81 of Italy’s 226 dioceses had responded to a questionnaire on child protection practices it had drawn up.
Rete l’Abuso said it had documented 1,250 alleged cases of abuse – some with multiple victims – of which 1,106 were allegedly committed by priests, with the rest attributed to nuns, religion teachers, lay volunteers, educators and scouts.
Its report contained cases linked to 4,625 victims – or survivors, as the association calls them – including 4,395 abused by priests.
The report said 4,451 of the survivors were under the age of 18 and almost as many – 4,108 – were men, Rete l’Abuso said, adding that five nuns, 156 vulnerable adults and 11 people with disabilities were also among the victims.
According to the association, of the 1,106 alleged predator priests, only 76 were subjected to ecclesiastical trials, including 17 temporarily suspended, seven transferred to other parishes and 18 defrocked or resigned from the priesthood. Five committed suicide, the press release added.
