CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
Editorial
Sift through the thousands of pages of secret documents on 36 abusive priests released by the Archdiocese of Chicago Thursday and you find the story of the Rev. Michael Weston.
And what a distressing tale it is.
The redacted documents, published online, show how Weston repeatedly abused boys as he moved from parish to parish over more than a decade, until he resigned in 1993. Although allegations were recorded as far back as the late 1970s, no action was taken until 2003. One frustrated priest who spoke up early lamented that “nothing would be done” unless photos of the abuse were produced. And there was little chance of that happening.
The trail of tragedy disclosed in Thursday’s documents release mirrors stories unearthed in a similar release on about 30 priests in January. The appalling extent of the human tragedy over 60 years no longer is in dispute, nor is the church’s shameful history of sweeping allegations under the rug and allowing offending priests to continue their predations against hundreds of minors. The real question today is whether the archdiocese has finally come to grips with the depth of the scandal, rather than simply react to public pressure. We believe it has. The proof is not in anything the archdiocese might say, but in the hard numbers.
That the numbers of complaints are down and that known offenders are out of the ministry tells us the archdiocese has put an effective, pro-active program in place to prevent abuse. The statistics since 1992 have moved sharply in the right direction as the number of new allegations has dropped dramatically. Ninety-eight percent of the abuse took place before 1992.
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