The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

Independent research. Not affiliated with any government, agency, or company.

Professional body

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Findings that rest on exhibits naming this entity

  • REL-3.2: Church files supplied to the 2004 John Jay study recorded allegations against 4,392 priests, 4.0 percent of the 109,694 who served from 1950 to 2002, made by 10,667 individuals. The 2011 John Jay study found that by 1985 bishops knew that sexual abuse of minors by priests was a problem but not its scope, because more than 80 percent of the cases now known had occurred by then and only 6 percent had been reported to dioceses.
  • REL-4.9: The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, founded in 1979, accredits more than 2,700 member churches and ministries that join voluntarily, affirm an evangelical Christian statement of faith and have an independent CPA audit, review or compile their financial statements, and it states that it is not an auditor. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has a voluntary diocesan financial reporting resolution under which each suffragan bishop sends his metropolitan archbishop a letter stating that his finance council reviewed audited statements.

Exhibits naming this entity

  • Exhibit 433 2000; renewed 2021. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: Resolution on Diocesan Financial Reporting (approved November 2000; renewed through November 2026)
  • Exhibit 471 February 2004 (first printing June 2004). John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (commissioned by the National Review Board): The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States, 1950-2002
  • Exhibit 472 May 2011. John Jay College of Criminal Justice (Karen J. Terry, principal investigator) for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010
  • Exhibit 473 June 2018 (original June 2002). United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (revised June 2018; adopted June 2002)