How church dealt with sex abuse to be revealed
Print Edition
Thousands of pages of documents showing how the Archdiocese of Chicago handled the sexual abuse of children by priests is to be made public, providing the broadest look yet into the details of what the church knew and did — or didn’t do — about the scandal.
The archdiocese, one of the largest and most influential in the US, last week handed over more than 6,000 pages of documents to victims’ attorneys, who said they will show that the archdiocese concealed abuse for decades, including moving priests to new parishes where they molested again.
The disclosures involving 30 priests were made as part of legal settlements with abuse victims, and are similar to disclosures made in other dioceses in the US in recent years that showed how the Roman Catholic Church shielded priests and failed for many years to report child sex abuse to authorities.
Chicago officials said most of the abuse occurred before 1988 and none after 1996.
Cardinal Francis George, who has led the archdiocese since 1997, released a letter to parishioners on January 12 in which he apologized for the abuse and said releasing the records “raises transparency to a new level.”
He also stressed that much of the abuse occurred decades ago, before he became archbishop. He said all the incidents were eventually reported to civil authorities and resulted in settlements with victims.
“I apologize to all those who have been harmed by these crimes and this scandal, the victims themselves, most certainly, but also rank and file Catholics who have been shamed by the actions of some priests and bishops,” he wrote.
The archdiocese has paid millions of dollars to settle sexual abuse claims about 200 victims of clergy abuse in the Chicago area.
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