Chicago Archdiocese Set to Release Records of Abuse Complaints

[unhappycamper]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/us/chicago-archdiocese-records-of-abuse-complaints.html?_r=0

Chicago Archdiocese Set to Release Records of Abuse Complaints
By MICHAEL PAULSON
JAN. 21, 2014

Thousands of documents detailing sexual abuse allegations against 30 Chicago-area priests are to be released to the public on Tuesday, after eight years of negotiations between victim advocates and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.

Most of the abuse was alleged to have taken place years ago, about half of the accused priests are dead and many of the victims have already been given financial settlements from the archdiocese. But the victims have pressed for publication of the files, arguing that the documents will provide an important form of reckoning, chronicling what church officials did, and did not do, when they learned of accusations that priests had molested minors.

“Publishing for all to read the actual records of these crimes raises transparency to a new level,” Cardinal Francis E. George said in a letter distributed to parishes this month. “It will be helpful, we pray, for some, but painful for many.”

The archdiocese turned the estimated 6,000 pages of documents over to lawyers for abuse victims last Wednesday; the lawyers said they planned to publish the documents online on Tuesday. An archdiocesan lawyer told reporters last week that 95 percent of the allegations in the files concerned conduct before 1988, and none after 1996; 14 of the 30 accused priests are dead, and none is still serving in ministry. Cardinal George, who has been the archbishop of Chicago si

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. I read Bernadin's deposition

That guy claimed that it was the policy of the archdiocese to report priests crimes to the local authorities. When asked how many times he had done so, in view of multiple, credible, and repeated allegations of sexual abuse by his priests, he testified, "None."