WASHINGTON — The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection has released the 2024 Annual Report – Findings and Recommendations on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

The report is based on the audit findings of StoneBridge Business Partners, a consulting firm which provides forensic, internal, and compliance audit services. A survey regarding allegations of abuse of minors and costs that is annually conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University is also included as a part of the report.

This is the 22nd such report since 2002 when the U.S. bishops established and adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a comprehensive framework of procedures to address allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy and establish protocols to protect children and young people.

The 2024 report covers July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. During that period, 902 allegations were reported by 855 victims-survivors of child sexual abuse by clergy throughout 195 Catholic dioceses and eparchies that reported information. This is a decrease of 406 allegations reported in the previous audit year. Out of the 902 allegations, a total of 548, or 61%, were brought to the attention of the diocesan/eparchial representatives through an attorney, making this the principal reporting method during the 2024 audit period. Allegations made by spouses, relatives, or other representatives such as other dioceses/eparchies, religious orders, clergy members, or law enforcement officials on behalf of the victim-survivor were additional methods of reporting, totaling 118 allegations. The remaining 236 allegations were made by self-disclosure.

During the current audit period, dioceses and eparchies provided outreach and support services to 146 victim-survivors and their families who reported during this audit period. Continued support was provided to 1,434 victim-survivors and their families who reported abuse in prior audit periods. The report notes the ongoing work of the Catholic Church in continuing the call to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults. In 2024, the Church conducted 2,237,906 background checks on clergy, employees, and volunteers. In addition, in 2024, over 2.2 million adults and over 2.8 million children and youth were trained in how to identify the warning signs of abuse and how to report those signs.

For the 2024 audit year, 195 of 196 dioceses/eparchies fully participated in the 2024 data collection process and one diocese did not participate. StoneBridge physically visited 48 dioceses/eparchies and utilized remote technologies to perform 22 additional remote visits to dioceses and eparchies, for a total of 70 on-site audit visits and collected data from an additional 125 others. Of the 70 dioceses/eparchies that participated in the on-site audits that took place between February and December 2024, there were four findings of non-compliance with certain aspects of the Charter involving two locations. Compliance with the Charter was determined based on implementation efforts from the date of the last audit visit through 2024.

CARA completed their data collection for the 2024 annual survey in January 2025. All but two of the 196 dioceses and eparchies of the USCCB completed the survey, for a response rate of 99%. The findings indicate that among 97 alleged perpetrators that were classified, more than four-fifths of the alleged offenders identified between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, are deceased, already removed from ministry, already laicized, or missing (84%). Another 11 priests or deacons identified during fiscal year 2024 were permanently removed from ministry during that time (11%). Four alleged offenders were temporarily removed from ministry pending investigation of the allegations (4%). One alleged offender remained in active ministry during that fiscal year pending the investigation (1%).

For the 2024 audit period, there are four findings of non-compliance with certain articles of the Charter involving one eparchy and one diocese. The Diocese of Our Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic Church in the USA was found to be non-compliant with Article 12 of the Charter due to the absence of a safe environment training program for minors, in addition to, failure to provide safe environment training to the majority of their volunteers. They were also found non-compliant with Article 13 of the Charter for not completing background checks for the majority of their volunteers. The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown was found non-compliant with Article 2 of the Charter due to not having a functioning Review Board throughout their audit period. The Diocese of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands did not participate in either the on-site audit or data collection process, thus no information on this location could be included in this report.

The USCCB’s Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People and the National Review Board continue to emphasize that the audit and continued application of zero-tolerance policies are two important tools in the Catholic Church’s broader commitment to create a culture of protection and healing that exceeds the requirements of the Charter.

This most recent annual report, and all previously published annual reports, may be found on the USCCB website: https://www.usccb.org/offices/child-and-youth-protection/audits. Additional information on diocesan requirements for the protection of children and young people may be found here.