The US bishops' conference voted last week to release US$335,000 for new research into the causes of clergy sexual abuse. The money - part of a $1 million fund earmarked by the bishops last year - will finance the first segment of a new three-part study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The first part of the study will examine "the historical context and influences on the problem", and determine whether the abuse scandal in the Church "is or is not consistent with overall social patterns of deviant behaviour during the last half century", said a press release from the bishops.

The whole study - which will eventually focus on the Church's institutional response to the crisis and on better understanding the psychology of abusive priests - is due to conclude by 2009. "By approving the proposal, bishops are saying we are serious about this; we haven't retreated from our original position and we'll stay on this until we can find the causes that will prevent these terrible things from happening," said Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, formerly of Washington.

Critics say that the study will add little to what's already known about the crisis, at considerable expense to parishioners. "How ridiculous," read an editorial in the Baltimore Examiner. "It's hard to understand how this study will help anyone but the church élite ... what more does the Church need to know?"

A previous study by John Jay determined that priests had been accused of abuse in more than 95 per cent of US dioceses, and that the resulting lawsuits had cost parishioners well in excess of half a billion dollars.

In the past week, the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, published a list of 20 of its priests whom it believes have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors, and the  Pope has defrocked two priests in the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, for the same offence. The Diocese of Spokane, bankrupted in 2004 by an abuse scandal of its own, may risk becoming the first US diocese since the Great Depression to face liquidation if it cannot meet its financial obligations.