Chicago Area Catholics Get First Look at Cardinal's Letter on Sex Abuse Cases

By Nancy Harty
The CBS Chicago
January 12, 2014

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/01/12/chicago-area-catholics-get-first-look-at-cardinals-letter-on-sex-abuse-cases/

Nancy Harty I was a fan of WBBM Newsradio 780 long before joining the staff as a...

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CHICAGO (CBS) – Catholics in the Chicago Archdiocese are getting their first look this morning at a letter from Cardinal George about sex abuse by priests, reports WBBM’s Nancy Harty.

Those leaving Mass at Holy Name Cathedral hadn’t yet read the Cardinal’s two page letter entitled, “Accountability and Transparency.”

“I don’t think it has been said enough in the past and I am really anxious to read this and find out what they have to say,” said one woman leaving Mass.

In it, Cardinal Francis George says he never assigned or transferred a priest that he knew had sexually abused a child and in 2002 removed from public ministry all priests with accusations that has been allowed to stay on under his predecessor.

Kate Bochte, a spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is critical of the letter.

“It is willful distortion of the truth,” said Bochte.

She says they Cardinal’s letter comes now only because documents from lawsuits the Archdiocese has settled with child sex abuse victims are being released later this week.

“If you want to protect children, you will release all the information documents he has today,” said Bochte.