Authorities detail extent of abuse by Australian priests

Seven percent of Australia’s Catholic priests were accused of sexually abusing children over the past few decades, an investigative committee reported today. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse held a hearing in which it disclosed the extent of the problems it uncovered since 2013. Commissioners surveyed Catholic Church authorities and found that between 1980 and 2015, 4,444 people reported they had been abused at more than 1,000 Catholic institutions across Australia, said Gail Furness, the lead lawyer assisting the commission. The average age of the victims was 10.5 for girls and 11.5 for boys. In the United States, 5.6 percent of clergy were accused of molesting children between 1950 and 2015, according to reports by U.S. bishops that were analyzed by BishopAccountability.org, which tracks data on abusive priests.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.