Church: Hundreds Abused In Ireland

(CBS/AP)  The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Dublin published a report Wednesday that says 102 of its priests — more than 3.5 percent of the total — are suspected of sexually or physically abusing at least 350 children since 1940, the biggest such admission to date in Ireland.

The office of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said it was publishing its findings ahead of the expected formation later this month of a government-appointed commission to investigate the history and handling of such abuse throughout Ireland. This predominantly Catholic nation has been rocked by waves of church sex-abuse scandals since 1994.

As in America, the Catholic church in Ireland has been rocked by a series of abuse scandals in the past decade, reports CBS News' Vicki Barker (audio). But Ireland is a predominantly Catholic nation; the revelations have cut deep into the national psyche.

The archdiocese said the numbers were based on a two-year review of the personnel files of more than 2,800 priests who have worked in the Dublin archdiocese, either as parish priests or in religious orders, during the past 66 years.

According to the report, eight Dublin-assigned priests have received criminal convictions for abuse charges, while 32 priests have been sued for damages by 105 victims at a cost to the archdiocese of $7 million, including $2.05 million in both sides' legal bills.

But it said costs were expected to go much higher because 40 cases remained unsettled, while church authorities had positively identified at least 350 abuse victims and "a possible further 40 persons who may have been abused but who it is not yet possible to identify or trace."

Martin, a veteran Vatican diplomat who was appointed here in 2003, said he thought the archdiocese would have to sell some of its properties to cover the mounting compensation bill — but said it was a necessary sacrifice to put right past wrongs, as much as possible.

"It's very frightening for me to see that in some of these cases, so many children were abused. It's very hard to weigh that up against anything," Martin said. "On the other hand, I know that the vast majority of priests don't abuse, that they do good work, that they're extremely upset and offended by what's happened."