Report Alleges Sex Abuse By 40 Vermont Priests Since 1950

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A new report from Vermont’s Roman Catholic Church says there were “credible and substantiated” allegations of the sexual abuse of minors against 40 priests in the state between 1950 and today.

All but one of those allegations occurred prior to 2000 and most of the priests who were named are now dead.

In releasing the report Thursday at the diocese’s headquarters in South Burlington, Vermont, Bishop Christopher Coyne called the number “staggering.”

Coyne commissioned the report after the Vermont attorney general’s office launched an investigation into allegations of abuse at the now-shuttered St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington and amid mounting pressure on the church to respond to abuse claims.

The diocese’s report was completed by an independent committee.