Italy church says 600 sex abuse cases sent to Vatican

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Italy’s Catholic bishops have provided their first-ever accounting of clergy sexual abuse. A report by the Italian bishops’ conference only covered reports received by the local Italian church over the last two years. It identified 89 presumed victims and some 68 people accused. However, the head of the bishops’ conference said during a news conference on Thursday that more than 600 cases were on file at the Vatican. The almost haphazard revelation underscored that the initial report was not intended to provide an accurate or historic look at the clergy abuse problem in Italy. Italy’s bishops never authorized such research despite pressure to follow other Catholic Churches in Europe that investigated decades’ worth of cases.