Archbishop of Vancouver J. Michael Miller has released a report offering a path forward for addressing clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church's local archdiocese.

"I realize that no expression of regret can repair the horror of what happened," Miller wrote in a pastoral letter at the front of the report. "Although nothing can undo the wrong that was done to you, I nonetheless wish to offer each of you my heartfelt apology for the trauma, the violation in body and soul, and the sense of betrayal and abandonment by the Church that you feel."

The report has 31 recommendations.

They deal with five broad areas: the process of reporting in the archdiocese, what to do when a cleric is convicted or found to be credibly accused, policies and training, outreach and healing, and issues dealing with the church in Canada.

It includes a call for a "nationwide electronic registry of credible allegations of clerical sexual abuse...which would allow information to be shared among dioceses and religious orders".

"The Archdiocese of Vancouver understands the importance of ensuring that information about sexual abuse of minors is available to the community," the report states. "The Case Review Committee determined that some 26 such assaults likely occurred in Vancouver over the last 70 years. Some 10 additional cases involved consensual adult relationships where, of course, the imbalance of power made them likely to be abusive."

Many of these cases "had not been investigated to a currently acceptable standard", according to the report.

Among the case reviews were three involving priests who had fathered children.

The report identifies nine clergy by name who were either convicted, had lawsuits settled, or otherwise had cases that became public.

They included Paul J. Blancard (born 1940), who was first investigated in 1967 or 1968 involving a sexual assault of a girl in Burnaby who was six or seven years old. No charges were laid.

Another complaint was filed in 1990 against Blancard when he was with the Diocese of Victoria. Charges were laid in 1992 and he was convicted and sentenced to one year in prison, ending his career as a priest. Two more allegations came forward in 2016.

The following deceased former priests were convicted were named: George Gordon (born 1915, died 2000), John McCann (born 1928, died 2018), Harold McIntee (born 1930, died 2016), and Alfred Frank Louis Sassoo (born 1934, died 1991).

Lawsuits were settled against Lawrence Edward (Damian) Cooper (born 1958), a priest who had a relationship with a woman, an Antero Sarmiento (born 1931, died 2019), who was being sought by police on three charges of indecent assault. Sarmiento returned to his native country, the Philippines, to avoid the charges.

The two public cases involved Edwin Budiman (born 1942) who was charged with two sexual offences against minors in 2007, and John Eason (born 1941), who was convicted of indecent assault against a 21-year-old woman in 1995. Those charges against Budiman were stayed.

Miller stated in his pastoral letter that he "owes an enormous debt of gratitude" to the 13 members of an archdiocesan case review committee, which was formed in October 2018.

An implementation working group had a mandate to draw up responses.

"Some of the recommendations have already been implemented; others will be in the very near future; and some require more time and reflection before being acted upon," Miller wrote. "Certainly, a great deal of work remains to be done."