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	Archdiocese Finds No Racial Bias in Sex Abuse Settlements Chicago Sun-Times August 27, 2009 http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/religion/1738443,archodiocese-chicago-priest-sex-abuse-082709.article Reacting to criticism that the Archdiocese of Chicago treated black victims of priest sex abuse worse than whites, the church analyzed financial settlements and found "no overall difference" in payouts between races. That's according to a strongly worded "background" memorandum recently sent to priests and deacons by a top archdiocesan official, the Rev. John Canary. The stated aim of the memo — obtained by ChicagoCatholicNews — is to help clergy "prepare to communicate with . . . parishioners about this and other important issues." "The Archdiocese has never considered race to be a factor in evaluating clerical misconduct claims, so we never compiled the numbers in this fashion," according to the Aug. 21 memo. "Each claim is evaluated individually and the amounts of the settlements vary based on the abuse that took place. Recently, we did an historical review of all the settlements the Archdiocese has reached with sexual abuse survivors. There is no overall difference between the amounts of settlements paid to African American survivors and those paid to others."
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