CHICAGO (IL)
RT
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has released thousands of documents related to its handling of sex abuse scandals that involved 30 priests and dated back decades.
Although the data covers only about half of the 65 priests with credible allegations against them, more than 6,000 documents were posted online Tuesday as part of a settlement with abuse victims who’ve filed lawsuits against the church.
Church officials stated that most of the abuse described by the documents occurred before 1988, and none after 1996, when Cardinal Francis George became head of the archdiocese. The files depict the behavior under George’s predecessors, however, who often sheltered accused priests from the public, reassigned them to other parishes when new allegations surfaced, and only removed priests from their posts decades after knowing they molested children.
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.