ILLINOIS
Daily Kos
Bob Johnson
There is a powerful, infuriating, moving and heartbreaking story in today’s Chicago Tribune. It is the story of one man’s quest to see justice done, not just for himself, but for at least one hundred other known victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy in the Joliet Diocese in Illinois.
Here’s the story:
Files detail decades of abuse in Joliet Diocese
What makes David Rudofski’s story — just one more story in the long and sordid history of pedophile shuffling by Catholic Church hierarchy all around the globe — so compelling is his insistence on forcing the diocese to release records related to pedophile priests going back decades. Rudofski refused numerous offers to settle out of court, to be quiet and go away, to, as he put it, “Take the money and run.”
The Joliet Diocese readily admitted that David Rudofski was sexually abused during his first confession at St. Mary Catholic Church in Mokena. It offered him an in-person apology from the bishop and more than six times his annual salary in the hope of putting a quick, quiet end to yet another ugly incident involving a priest.
But Rudofski wanted more than money.
The south suburban electrician wanted the diocese to truly pay for its repeated and, oftentimes, willful mishandling of sexual abuse cases involving clergy — and he insisted on a currency far more precious to the church than money. He demanded that the diocese settle its debt by turning over the secret archives it maintained on abusive priests and making them available for public consumption.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.