WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. Roman Catholic officials say they have received 1,092 charges of clergy sex abuse, most involving boys, Newsday reported Saturday.
Many of the allegations concern abuse allegedly occurring decades ago and involving priests who have either died, been removed from ministry, or laicized, said Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection in Washington, D.C.
"The crisis of sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic Church is not over," she said. "What is over is the denial that this problem exists."
About half of the 756 priests and deacons named in the new allegations had not previously been identified, she said.
The new information brings the total allegations of sex abuse since 1950 to 11,750 against more than 5,000 priests and deacons, she said. The scandal has, so far, cost the U.S. Catholic church more than $800 million.
