CHICAGO (IL)
PBS Newshour
[with video]
Transcript
GWEN IFILL: The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, the country’s third largest, shielded and protected priests who were accused of sexual abuse for decades. Newly released papers document the actions of 30 priests, nearly half of them deceased, the rest now out of ministry. Victims who had long pressed for more information talked about it at a press conference in Chicago today.
JOE IACONO, abuse victim: The priest that abused me moved seven times and abused others. If they would have stopped him, like they would have stopped the other at the time of abuse, there would be many — there would be significantly less victims.
Part of the release of these files, I am hopeful that there will be less victims in the future and people will stop putting the reputation of the institution above the welfare of the children. That is my hope.
GWEN IFILL: The documents released as part of a settlement with those victims describe how the late Cardinals John Cody and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin approved the reassignments of priests.
In a letter sent to parishes this past weekend, Cardinal Francis George, who took over the Archdiocese in 1997, apologized for the past actions of the church, writing, “In the late ’80s, the archdiocese began to put its house in some order,” and he said he hoped transparency would be helpful. But he also said that almost all of the incidents were perpetrated by priests he never met.
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.