CHICAGO (IL)
Crux
By Michael O’Loughlin
National reporter November 6, 2015
CHICAGO — When the movie “Spotlight” hits theaters across the country Friday, the Catholic Church’s cover-up of child sexual abuse will again be in focus, more than a decade after The Boston Globe published a series of stories exposing policies that allowed abusive priests to stay in ministry.
After the Spotlight series, revelations surfaced that many other dioceses in the United States and around the world operated in a similar manner, keeping credible allegations secret from police and parishioners, with policies aimed at protecting priests instead of children.
Just this week, an investigation by the National Catholic Reporter found that the Catholic Church in the United States incurred more than $4 billion in costs related to the sex abuse crisis, which affected more than 95 percent of all US dioceses and saw more than 4,000 priests accused, according to an independent 2004 study commissioned by US bishops.
But in Chicago, archdiocesan authorities have a message: Don’t paint with too broad a brush.
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