'We Hang Our Heads in Shame'

An investigation into decades of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Australia revealed Monday that 7 percent of all priests working in the country between 1950 and 2010 had been accused of abusing children.

While the issue of abuse in the Catholic Church has been widely reported around the world in recent years, it is only now that the true extent of the problem in Australia has been set out. A royal commission set up to look at institutional responses to child sexual abuse published the shocking figures on Monday, detailing reports of child sex abuse during a 35-year period up to 2015. The commission also reported some alleged abuse dating back as far as 1950.

These findings not only highlight widespread sexual abuse taking place across Australia but also show how Church leaders effectively worked to cover up the allegations, with children's accusations being "ignored, or worse, punished," Gail Furness, the lead lawyer assisting the commission in Sydney, said on Monday.

Here are some of the grim statistics revealed in the report:

• 4,444 — the number of alleged incidents reported between 1980 and Feb. 2015

• 7 — the percentage of priests accused of child abuse between 1950 and 2010. This rose to as high 15 percent in some dioceses between 1950 and 2015

• 10.5  — the average age of alleged female victims, rising slightly to 11.5 years for alleged male victims

• 1,880 — the number of alleged perpetrators

• 40 — the percentage of people in the Brothers of St. John of God order accused of abuse

• 33 — the average number of years between a victim being abused and the victim reporting it or seeking redress

• 1,000 – the number of institutions in Australia identified in claims of sexual abuse

Furness said the accounts given by children who had suffered the abuse were "depressingly similar," and pointed out that "Documents were not kept, or they were destroyed. Secrecy prevailed as did cover-ups."

Read the rest at VICE News