US, June 8, 2002: At least 300 civil lawsuits alleging clerical sex abuse have been filed in 16 states since January, when the case of a pedophile priest in Boston spurred claims against Roman Catholic dioceses across America, a nationwide review by The Associated Press found. Lawyers say the rush of litigation is truly dramatic for such a short time, and that several hundred more cases are being informally mediated between dioceses and accusers. That ensures American bishops will remain under enormous legal and financial pressure from the scandal even after they overhaul their abuse policy in a meeting starting Thursday. “It’s off the charts,” said Pat Schiltz, a Minnesota attorney who has defended dioceses against hundreds of abuse claims. Chicago Cardinal Francis George may sell the mansion where the city’s archbishops have lived for more than a century, acknowledging some of the proceeds could be used to pay legal fees in abuse cases. Almost 250 of the nation’s more than 46,000 Roman Catholic priests have either been dismissed from their duties or resigned since the scandal began in January. Beyond the toll in loss of staff and credibility, the financial cost of these cases has never been fully calculated. Estimates of what the church has paid out since the first major scandals broke in the 1980s range from about $300 million to $1 billion.
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