CHICAGO (IL)
Business Insider
[the documents via BishopAccountability.org]
[the documents via Jeff Anderson & Associates]
MARY WISNIEWSKI
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Chicago Archdiocese had a practice of moving priests accused of sexual abuse to new parishes, where they committed more abuse against children, according to documents released on Tuesday by lawyers representing the victims.
The latest in a series of such abuse disclosures by Midwest church officials, the documents provided to lawyers by the nation’s third-largest Archdiocese concern 30 former priests accused of abusing minors during the last half century.
“These were not mistakes,” said attorney Marc Pearlman, who represents the victims of child sexual abuse by clergy. “These were decisions made at the very highest level.”
Pearlman said the files, which amounted to thousands of pages of documents, showed a pattern of repeated abuse with the Archdiocese working to keep the allegations secret and transfers of abusers to new parishes.
Fourteen of the men are deceased – the rest are out of ministry. Lawyers also released documents on Tuesday regarding two additional priests – one of them, Daniel McCormack, who had been in ministry in Chicago until 2006.
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