CHURCH SEX-ABUSE CLAIMS DROP

New York POST
By DAREH GREGORIAN

April 11, 2007 -- The country's Roman Catholic bishops received 714 clergy sex-abuse claims in 2006 - the second consecutive year the number of allegations has dropped, according to a new report.
Costs related to abuse cases also decreased - by 15 percent over the last year - due to a decline in what dioceses paid to settle molestation cases.

The findings are part of an annual review that the bishops first commissioned in 2002 as they implemented reforms to better safeguard children at the height of the clergy sex-abuse scandal.
Dioceses paid $399 million in 2006 for settlements with victims, lawyers' fees and support for accusers and offenders.

For 2005, that figure was $467 million - considered the highest ever for a single year.

The declining number of claims - there were 1,092 in 2004 and 783 the next year - could be taken as evidence that the church is gradually gaining control over the crisis.

Meanwhile, the New York Archdiocese cannot be held responsible for the actions of Monsignor John Woolsey, who allegedly poached thousands of dollars from a parishioner, a state appeals court ruled yesterday. The estate of Rose Cale had filed suit against Woolsey, the former pastor of the Church of St. John the Martyr on the Upper East Side, and the archdiocese.