ARLINGTON (VA)
USA Today
Nov. 15, 2019
By Nicole Carroll
I’m USA TODAY editor-in-chief Nicole Carroll and this is the Backstory, insights into our biggest stories of the week. If you’d like to get the Backstory in your inbox every Friday, subscribe here.
Reporter Lindsay Schnell and her editor, Cristina Silva, heard a disturbing story. A man told a state lawmaker that a Catholic school teacher had abused him 30 years earlier – and the teacher was still in the classroom.
How was that possible?
The answer is found in our investigation into former priests, Catholic brothers and Catholic school officials credibly accused of sexual abuse,but never brought to trial in part because so many state statute of limitation laws make it nearly impossible for victims to pursue criminal charges decades after alleged abuse.
The majority of U.S. Catholic dioceses have released names of credibly accused priests – many of whom were defrocked, or laicized, meaning they no longer work with the church. But neither the government nor the church keeps track of (or are required to keep track of) the credibly accused.
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