There are documented cases of credible allegations that go back to the 1920s.
But there does seem to be a modest but noticeable uptick in the number of cases by the mid- or late-1950s. The question becomes, then do the generally lower numbers prior to that time represent an actual lower level of abuse cases, or just the fact that a lot of the folks involved, both victims and priests, were, by the late 1990s and early 2000s, already dead?
But clearly by the 1950s, it's obvious that something systematically evil is happening. By 1960, there are something like 75 or 80 cases in the US. And it rises through the 1960s and through the 1970s. It really skyrockets when the bishops nominated by Archbishop Jadot start to take power in large numbers.
The problem continued to worsen for two-and-a-half decade before peaking in 1981 at around 800 per year. And then, by the early 1990s, the number of abuse cases declined dramatically. By 1995, the number of abuse cases is down to around 50. By the early 2000s (ironically, when the public scandal got under way), annual cases were in the range of 25 - 30.
But that had nothing to do with the fact that Karol Wojtyla became pope three years before the problem peaked and the entire decline happened on his watch. Nooooo. He did “nothing about it.” Yeah, right.
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