• NEW YORK (AP) -- A Roman Catholic religious order released an unusually candid report Tuesday outlining how its leaders failed for decades to stop sex abuse in its schools and other ministries.
• The Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Joseph, which spans 10 Midwestern states, asked experts in clergy sex abuse to provide a full accounting of abuse by examining all the order's records. Advocates for victims said it was the broadest attempt at transparency by any part of the American church.
• The auditors found the Province of St. Joseph hid abuse from parents and police, kept offenders in ministry long after their misconduct was known and spent far more on defense attorneys than on helping victims. Some friars showed compassion to victims. But they were thwarted when the order and the insurance company that covered settlement to victims allowed lawyers to take a win-at-all-costs strategy in civil lawsuits that was unnecessary and undermined the moral standing of the church, according to the findings.
• "For much of the history of the province, we have failed victims," said the Rev. John Celichowski, the provincial minister, or leader, of the Province of St. Joseph, in a conference call with reporters. "We realize it will take years and many concrete gestures to restore the trust we lost."
• Much of the detail in the report was previously known. In 1992, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on abuse at St. Lawrence Seminary High School, a boy's boarding school that the order runs in Mount Calvary, Wis., about 70 miles north of Milwaukee. The religious order was compelled to publicly confront the issue for the first time and hired a law firm to investigate and issue findings.
• However, the latest audit included names of friars with confirmed allegations of abuse, and it discovered additional victims. The report included the names of 23 friars who the auditors could confirm were guilty of sexual misconduct. In abuse investigations elsewhere, only a small number of church leaders have released the names of accused priests in a diocese or religious order.
• The investigation also stands out for the way it was conducted. The Province of St. Joseph is the first in the church to voluntarily open records to outside experts and release details of how individual leaders failed to protect children. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has commissioned studies on abuse claims and hires auditors to check current child safety programs. But those reports contain gen

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