Kansas’ largest Roman Catholic diocese spent more than $1 million on settlements, legal fees and therapy for victims of sexual abuse by priests and for priests facing allegations of abuse, according to a church report released Friday.

The Wichita diocese spent $897,500 on legal fees and settlements and $144,128 for therapy and counseling.

The figures were included in a report by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In a letter published Friday in the Wichita diocese’s newsletter, The Catholic Advance, Monsignor Robert E. Hemberger apologized to victims.

Hemberger, the diocese’s administrator, outlined steps the diocese had taken to prevent sexual abuse and asked people affected by abuse to forgive the church.

“Every bishop wishes he knew in the 1960s what he knows now about this sin, this illness, this crime,” he wrote. “But the clock does not run backwards. How do we move forward?”

That remains a difficult prospect for the families of five boys who were victims of one priest, Robert Larson. All five committed suicide as adults.

Janet Patterson, whose son Eric killed himself in 1999, now runs a support group for victims and their families.

“If God can’t pardon a sinner unless he makes restitution and is generally willing to make up for his injustice, then I find it impossible to do more than God can do,” Patterson said.

Larson, now defrocked, is serving a sentence of three to 10 years and will next be eligible for parole in September.

The bishops’ report, carried out by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, found that 4 percent of Catholic clergy serving between 1950 and 2002 had been accused of sexual abuse. That amounts to 4,392 out of the 109,694 Catholic clergy.