Polish Bishops' Conference 2021 Abuse Report

On 28 June 2021 the Polish Bishops' Conference released a report, compiled by the Institute of Statistics of the Catholic Church and presented by Archbishop Wojciech Polak, the conference's delegate for the protection of children and young people, on clergy sexual abuse allegations received between 1 July 2018 and 31 December 2020. The report named 292 priests and religious as accused, across incidents reported from as early as 1958 through 2020, drawn from 368 allegations. About 144 cases, roughly 40 percent, were confirmed or considered credible at the initial stage of a Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith investigation; about 186, roughly 50 percent, remained under investigation; and about 38, roughly 10 percent, were rejected as unfounded. Of 173 cases involving children under 15, 148 were reported to state law enforcement agencies. Archbishop Polak presented the findings with an apology "to the wronged and all scandalized by evil in the Church." The report followed an earlier survey the conference had released in 2018 and 2019 covering a different span, 1990 to 2018, which is recorded as a separate documented record rather than merged with this one.