Nearly 4,400 people have been abused by Catholic priests in Italy in reported cases since 2020, a victims’ group denounced Friday, renewing pressure on bishops to confront a crisis that has long plagued the world’s largest Christian faith.
The unofficial count by Rete l’Abuso, the largest group of religious abuse victims in Italy, is based on victims’ accounts, judicial sources and cases reported by the media, said the association’s founder, Francesco Zanard.
Rete l’Abuso did not say since when the alleged cases of abuse occurred.
The Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), which came under fire last week by the Vatican’s child protection commission, did not comment on the findings, a spokesman said.
Most of the accusations refer to 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 outspoken in confronting the problem.
The new Pope Leo, who met for the first time this week with survivors of clerical sexual abuse, has told the Church’s new bishops not to cover up allegations of misconduct. His predecessor, the late Pope Francis, made addressing the issue a priority of his 12-year papacy, but with mixed results.
In an unusually critical report on the issue published Oct. 16, the Vatican’s child protection commission said only 81 of Italy’s 226 dioceses responded to a questionnaire on protection practices it had drafted.
Rete l’Abuso said it had documented 1,250 suspected cases of abuse, some with multiple victims, including 1,106 allegedly committed by priests, and the rest attributed to nuns, religion teachers, lay volunteers, educators and scout members.
Its report contained cases involving 4,625 victims (or survivors, as the association calls them), including 4,395 abuses by priests.
The report said 4,451 of the survivors were under 18, and almost as large a number (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 priests alleged to be predators, only 76 were subjected to ecclesiastical trials, 17 temporarily suspended, seven transferred to other parishes and 18 were expelled or resigned from the priesthood. Five died by suicide, he added.
