CHICAGO (IL)
National Catholic Reporter
Brian Roewe | Nov. 7, 2014
The Chicago archdiocese on Thursday voluntarily released nearly 15,000 pages of documents related to 36 priests with substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors brought against them.
All 36 priests are no longer active in ministry and had been listed on the archdiocese’s website prior to the release; 14 have died and nine have been laicized. The archdiocese stated in a press release that 92 percent of the cases predate 1988 and that no priests with a substantiated allegation of child sexual abuse is currently in ministry. The files are available on its website.
Jan Slattery, director of the archdiocese’s Office for the Protection of Children and Youth, told NCR that the release of the files was important because it provides “a full story.”
“We didn’t do everything perfectly. It got better as you come through time,” she said. She said she anticipates the documents will encourage additional victims to come forward “and to try to reach some healing and some appropriate settlement within themselves.”
The Thursday release comes roughly nine months since the archdiocese made public 6,000 pages of documents related to another 30 priests. Those files came as part of a 2008 settlement with alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse. Slattery said the January release led survivors of sexual abuse to come forward, but they named no priests not already listed by the archdiocese. …
Despite the release coming without legal force, as did the January disclosure, it nonetheless garnered criticism.
“I’m comforted that they put some information out. I’m disturbed that they chose not to engage us in the process so we could be sure it’s all it has to be and should be,” attorney Jeff Anderson told NCR. “And having reviewed it, it raises more questions than it does give answers.”
Anderson, who represented claims in the settlement that brought the January release, said “at that time, it was our intention to continue that process” that brought about the first 30 disclosures, but that they were ultimately denied access. He attributed that in part to critical statements he made about George’s handling of the McCormack case.
John O’Malley, director of legal services for the archdiocese, told NCR that while Anderson, following the January release, made known his interest in being a part of further disclosures, “we never, ever told him that we were entertaining that thought or that that was a possibility, as far as I know.”
“I’m frankly disappointed that he’s making these points because I would have hoped he would have supported our decision to do this voluntarily, on our own, because he’s been calling for that for a long time,” he said.
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