IRELAND
Irish Examiner
By Caroline O’Doherty
A FRESH trawl of Catholic Church files has revealed that 17 priests born or ordained in Ireland are the subject of law suits in one archdiocese in the United States following allegations of sexual abuse.
Nine of the priests are still alive and some are still serving in parishes in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles where just one has been cleared by the church authorities of the complaints against him. One deceased priest has also been cleared.
The Archdiocese yesterday released documents on 126 priests who have served in its parishes from the 1920s to the present time and who are the subject of multi-million dollar compensation claims against the Church.
In total the authorities have acknowledged accusations of sexual abuse made by more than 600 complainants against 244 priests, deacons, brothers and seminarians but not all have progressed to civil suits.
The clergy files published yesterday list the various parishes and communities the priests served and the chaplaincies and other posts they held but details of the allegations against them and the response of the Church are sketchy.