Clergy Abuse Reckoning Colorado
A report released Tuesday by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office identifies nine new Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing juveniles in the mid-to late 20th century, pushing the number of clergy identified by the office to over 50 and the number of victims past 200.
The new findings, a supplement to the report released in October 2019 by former U.S. Attorney Robert Troyer, include 46 new victims who have come forward since the initial review and list were completed. The supplemental report wraps up a nearly two-year-long investigation by Troyer that examined allegations of abuse within church-provided files dating back to 1950.
The priests newly accused of abuse are from the Archdiocese of Denver and the Pueblo diocese.
The reckoning, as investigators have called it, comes decades after much of the abuse described in both reports took place. The totality of the findings describe 212 children abused by 52 priests. Most of the children identified in the were between 10 and 14.
There were 150 children abused by 27 priests from the Denver archdiocese; three were abused by two priests in the Colorado Springs diocese; and 59 were abused by 23 priests in the Pueblo diocese.
“From the time we announced this program in February 2019, our goals were to support and comfort survivors of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic priests, and to bring meaningful change to how the Colorado diocese protect children from sexual abuse,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement.