By Daniel Burke
USA Today
September 10, 2008
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-09-09-catholic-abuse_N.htm
An Illinois Supreme Court justice who chaired a lay review board investigating the Catholic sex abuse scandal blasts the church and prominent cardinals in a new book, accusing them of dishonesty.
Justice Anne M. Burke, who headed the National Review Board for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2002 to 2004, says "bishops got away with concealing crime" and singles out Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.
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| Cardinal Francis George of Chicago oversaw debate on church sexual abuse policy at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops here in 2002.
Photo by Ken Lambert |
Burke says she was furious at George's "casual attitude" and said he "wasn't honest with me." Burke also says George, now president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, didn't tell her he was housing an abusive priest.
"I found the cardinal's lack of honesty really difficult to deal with," Burke says in the book by Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. "How do I go on to trust what he says to me?.. He and his brother bishops have been in denial all along."
Burke's comments come in Being Catholic Now, a collection of reflections about Catholicism by prominent U.S. Catholics, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly. The book was released Tuesday (Sept. 9).
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Delaware | House Speaker Nancy Pelosi | Chicago Tribune | Catholicism | Bill O'Reilly | Sen. Robert F. Kennedy | Cardinal Francis George of Chicago | National Review Board | Kerry Kennedy
Burke told the Chicago Tribune that the interview took place more than a year ago and she commends George's recent actions, including his release of his legal documents and his promise to purge the priesthood of abusers.
In a statement, George said he was "unaware of all the details of his situation" when he allowed a Delaware priest accused of abuse to stay at his residence.
"I stated publicly that there was no priest in ministry in Chicago who had against him a substantiated claim of sexual abuse of a minor," George said. "That statement was true when I made it and it is true now."
Burke also criticizes Cardinal Edward Egan of New York in the book, saying he "was offended by" the National Review Board's "insistence on independence."
"I think he was also intimidated by the thoughts of fifty former FBI agents doing our questioning," Burke says.
Egan's office did not respond to a request for comment.
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