NEW YORK, NY February 27, 2004 — Today, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will release numbers attempting to count how many child sexual abuse cases the church has faced since 1950, and how many priests may have been involved. It also includes the amount of money spent to settle lawsuits and provide treatment for victims. The unprecedented report will likely spur another round of headlines about the scandal. WNYC's Amy Eddings looked into how local dioceses were preparing.

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period of reflection and repentance before Easter, when Christians celebrate Christ's resurrection. At St. James Cathedral in Brooklyn, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said a morning Mass.
DiMarzio: My dear friends in Christ, let us now ask our heavenly Father to bless these ashes, which we will use as a mark of our repentance.

The solemn season provides a fitting background for today's report on the scope of child sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church. It was prepared by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, at the request of the bishops' conference. Bishop DiMarzio says he's discussed the upcoming report with his priests, and has encouraged them to notify parishioners about it.

DiMarzio: I think people need to hear about it, we need to know about it ourselves, so that's what we've been doing, and we're trying to give them the material they can use to comment on it.

DiMarzio says there's no context for what will be discussed today, as no other profession has done such a self-examination. So he's concerned there's no way of knowing if the church's abuse statistics are higher or lower than any other organization.

After two years of scandals that had most church officials reacting, often defensively, to horrible headlines, many bishops are getting out ahead of the John Jay report. The report will provide aggregate numbers for the country, and will not break figures down by diocese. Nevertheless, many dioceses have gone ahead and released their local figures. Long Island's Diocese of Rockville Centre put its numbers up on its website early last week. From the founding of the diocese in 1957 to June, 2002, 132 people alleged sexual abuse by a total of 66 clergy. Nearly four million dollars have been spent to settle lawsuits and provide victims with counseling. Reverend Jim Vlaun, director of communications, says the diocese moved up the release of the figures by two days, after a copy of the John Jay report was leaked to CNN.

Vlaun: We want to get this information out in a quick way, in a way that people can get it if they need it, and if they want to read it, and in a way that we're not reacting to media, but, in a way, helping to get the message out with the media.

Victims' advocacy groups are also getting out ahead of the John Jay report, criticizing its use of self reported numbers. A local spokesperson for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests says the early disclosure of numbers by many bishops is more about spin than transparency. But Bob Kristen, with the Manhattan chapter of Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic lay group formed in response to the abuse crisis, sees the early release of local figures by many bishops as a sign of progress.

Kristen: I think that, you know, everything that's gone down in the last couple of years has had a cumulative effect. They realize that it's, the problem is in the public domain, and they have to be out there with it, with the information, and not just keep it close to the vest.

Meanwhile, some dioceses, including Brooklyn and the Archdiocese of New York, have waited until today to present their figures, in concurrence with the official release of the John Jay report. A spokesman for the Archdiocese says this is in order to provide parishioners with a national context to put the numbers in perspective. For this first-of-its-kind survey, context may be difficult to find. For WNYC, I'm Amy Eddings.