By Gina Christian, OSV News
(OSV News) — An annual report from the nation’s Catholic bishops shows that more than 1,000 allegations of child sexual abuse were reported in U.S. dioceses during the 2025 fiscal year, with just over 2% involving individuals who were minors in that period.
In addition, on-site auditors found weaknesses in several dioceses’ review boards and records management, as well as burnout and turnover among safe environment and victim assistance staff.
Based on costs included in the report, U.S. Catholic dioceses have, according to OSV News’ calculations, paid some $5 billion in abuse settlements and related costs from 2004 to June 2025 — a total that to date likely exceeds $6 billion when factoring in more recent settlements, such as one for $800 million reached by the Archdiocese of New York.
On May 27, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection and its National Review Board released the “2025 Annual Report — Findings and Recommendations on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”
The report — which covered the period July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, with 194 of the nation’s 196 dioceses and eparchies participating — is the 23rd since the charter was established by the U.S. Catholic bishops in 2002 as a number of clergy abuse scandals emerged. Commonly called the Dallas Charter, the document lays out a comprehensive set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, and includes guidelines for reconciliation, healing, accountability and prevention of abuse.
Data for the report came from audits conducted by StoneBridge Business Partners, a Rochester, New York-based consulting firm that provides forensic and compliance services to a range of organizations. In addition, the report includes a survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) on allegations and costs related to the abuse of minors.
‘Historic milestone’ for child protection
In his preface, USCCB president Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City noted that by the end of 2025, “100% of the 196 dioceses and eparchies” in the U.S. “had participated in at least one on-site audit.”
The “historic milestone” marked “the first time since the Charter’s inception that full participation has been achieved,” he said.
At the same time, said Archbishop Coakley, “continued vigilance is essential as sexual abuse often occurs within trusted relationships, and consistent monitoring is vital to prevent harm.”
Deficiencies in review boards raise concerns
The report noted that the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana, was found to be non-compliant during the report period with the charter’s requirement to hold regular meetings of its diocesan review board.
Such boards, comprised of mostly lay members not employed by a given diocese, serve as confidential consultative bodies to bishops for handling abuse allegations, and are required under the Dallas Charter.
In recent years, the diocesan review board issue has emerged as a pain point, with James F. Bognar, chair of the USCCB’s advisory National Review Board, noting in his report letter to Archbishop Coakley that the secretariat has launched quarterly meetings for local review board members “to address questions and clarify the full scope” of their duties.
Deficiencies in diocesan review boards were — along with records management and “burnout, turnover and compassion fatigue” among safeguarding and victim assistance workers — among the “three areas of concern” Stonebridge identified in more than 10% of the sites it had audited during the report period.
The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux later held its review board meeting to comply with the charter requirement. According to the report, two other dioceses did not participate in either the on-site audit or the data collection process: the Ohio-based Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma, and the Michigan-based Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance.
Stonebridge said that during the report period, a total of 1,070 allegations had been reported by 973 survivors of childhood sexual abuse by clergy throughout the 194 dioceses and eparchies for which data was available. The number of allegations for the 2025 report marked an increase of 168 from last year’s data.
Of the 1,070 total allegations, 24 involved individuals who were minor children during the reporting period, most (17) were girls, with 6 boys and 1 child whose sex was not identified. Four of the allegations were substantiated, with 13 still under investigation and seven ruled unsubstantiated.
A total of 837 clerics were accused of sexually abusing a minor over the past reporting year, with well over half (552, or about 66%) of them diocesan priests, with the remainder members of a religious order (120), elsewhere incardinated (32), deacons (14) or “unknown” (119). Among identified clerics, close to half (45%) had also been accused in previous audit periods, the report said.
Over half (456, or 54%) of the 837 accused were deceased as of June 30, 2025. Another 17% (143) were listed as having “unknown” status, 8% (67) had been permanently removed from ministry, 5% (46) had been removed from the clerical state, and 4% (34) were in active ministry. Another 3% (29) had been temporarily removed from ministry, with 2% (17) resigning.
Safe environment training rates
Safe environment training rates have remained above 99% for clergy, ordination candidates and educators, and above 98% for staff and volunteers, with rate for background checks equally high.
However, safe environment training rates have declined among children down to 89.1% in 2025 from 93% in 2018.
The CARA survey included in the USCCB’s 2025 report showed that during the audit period, responding dioceses and eparchies reported a total of 117 credible allegations of child sexual abuse by 89 diocesan or eparchial priests.
Of those, “three allegations may have involved children under the age of 18,” meaning that “the abuse occurred in the past 18 years,” said CARA. “All of the other allegations were made by adults who are alleging abuse when they were minors.”
CARA said 97% of the nation’s dioceses and eparchies participated in the survey, while 61% of the religious communities for which CARA had contact information responded.
Rising costs of resolving claims and safe environment
As it has since 2004, CARA also tallied the costs of both resolving abuse claims and safe environment protocols.
For dioceses and eparchies during the reporting period, settlements totaled over $276 million, not including almost $6.3 million in additional payments to victims. Attorney fees added up to almost $89 million, with $11.4 million in “other costs” and nearly $7.4 million in support for alleged offenders.
In all, the fiscal year 2025 abuse costs for dioceses totaled $389,961,007, said CARA, which noted a 61% jump over the 2024 total of $242,799,401.
“That increase is mostly tied to the increase in the settlement amounts paid during the year 2025, which increased by 69 percent,” CARA said in the report. “This may, in large part, (be) due to the removal of the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse allegations.”
When adding in the data from religious communities that participated in its survey, the total allegations-related costs for the Church in the U.S. within the past fiscal year rose to $483,534,316, said CARA.
CARA also noted that “dioceses, eparchies, and religious communities paid $36,853,017 for child protection efforts between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025,” which represented “a 1 percent increase from the amount spent on such child protection efforts in the previous reporting year ($36,558,695).”
“I hope and pray that, through collective efforts, we remain vigilant and committed to the work needed to prevent the evil of child sexual abuse — not only in the Church, but in society,” said Archbishop Coakley in the report.
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.
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