Chicago Archdiocese to Open All Files on Sex Abuse

Houston Chronicle
January 15, 2014

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Chicago-archdiocese-to-open-all-files-on-sex-abuse-5145991.php

CHICAGO (AP) — The Archdiocese of Chicago says it plans eventually to release documents on all the former priests with substantiated abuse claims against them.

Church files being released Wednesday as part of a settlement account for slightly fewer than half the 65 ex-clergy members who have been identified on an archdiocese website.

The rest were not sought as part of the 2006 settlement.

But archdiocese attorney John O'Malley says it plans to review them and devise a plan for releasing them.

He did not provide a timeframe. But says he hopes it would be faster than the eight years it took to release the records now being handed over to attorneys for abuse victims.

He says that process took years because of painstaking efforts to protect the privacy of the abuse victims.