Between the 1st of January 1990 and 30th June 2018, 382 cases of sex abuse of minors were reported, of which 198 victims were younger than 15 years old and 184 over 15 - according to the data revealed by the Polish Episcopal Conference on Thursday.
According to the data collected by the Episcopal Conference of Poland from all dioceses and orders, the total number of victims below the age of 15 amounted to 345, also including unconfirmed cases.
There 280 victims above the age of 15. Among the abuse victims in all reported cases, 58,4 percent were male and 41,6 percent female.
From all the cases in which it was possible to establish the stage of canonical trial (94,8 percent of overall number of cases), 74,6 percent were already finished, whereas 25,4 percent were still ongoing.
The data was prepared by the Institute for Catholic Church Statistics and the Centre for Child Protection.
The report follows investigations into widespread abuse of minors by clergy in other countries - notably in Chile, the United States, Australia and Ireland - that have shaken the Roman Catholic Church to its foundations.
"Each of these victims should first and foremost evoke in us, the clergymen, sorrow, shame and guilt because of these situations took place," the Primate of Poland, Archbishop Wojciech Polak said on Thursday.
"This is an especially painful, tragic issue as it is connected with consecrated people, who devoted themselve to serving the church, other human beings. They have social trust and this social trust was so tragically violated," Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski said at a news conference.
"The victims need more encouragement to come forward and report the crimes," the head of the Episcopate, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki said.
Real numbers are higher
Last month the Polish charity "Have no fear", which supports abuse victims, delivered its own report to Pope Francis in which it calculated - purely on the basis of media reports collated since the mid-1950s - that at least 384 minors had been sexually abused by clergy in Poland.
Activists say the real figure is probably much greater.
The charity has called for the creation of a panel to investigate the real scale of the problem, securing access to Church documents regarding the abuse of minors, and dismissing bishops found responsible for covering up sexual crimes.
In Poland, Catholic priests enjoy high social prestige and victims of sexual abuse by clergy are often suspected by devout Poles of making up false accusations, even long after the offender in question has been jailed.
Poland remains one of Europe's most devout countries. Nearly 85 percent of Poland's 38 million-strong population identify as Roman Catholics and around 12 million attend mass every Sunday.
But Polish Church authorities have yet to reach a consensus on how to address the issue of sexual abuse.
An arm of the Church has filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court seeking to annul a 1 million zloty ($263,000) payment ordered by a lower court to a woman who, as a 13-year old child, was repeatedly raped by her local priest.
The case was a landmark ruling in granting compensation and an annuity to a victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest in Poland.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP, Reuters