LOUISVILLE (KY)
Courier Journal
November 7, 2018
By Caitlin McGlade
Two senior Catholic officials who remained silent decades ago when priests were accused of sexually abusing Louisville children have been kept in power — and even promoted — on Archbishop Joseph Kurtz’s watch.
That’s not what many Louisville Catholics expected when Kurtz arrived in 2007 to take over the archdiocese, which was rocked by a major child sex abuse scandal a few years earlier.
Previous church leaders in Kentucky’s largest Catholic community had allowed abusive priests to remain in ministry while silencing their victims, a practice laid bare when hundreds sued the church, winning a $25.7 million settlement in 2003.
Kurtz came in as a warm and inviting man with a remarkable ability to remember everyone’s name. It was hoped he would help heal wounds in the archdiocese. Abuse survivor Cal Pfeiffer recalls thinking the new archbishop was either incredibly nice or just a great politician.
A decade later, some abuse survivors say they know which it is.
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