Documents Show Chicago Archdiocese Shielded Priests

By Mark Peters
Wall Street Journal
January 21, 2014

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Thousands of pages of internal documents from one of the nation's largest Catholic archdioceses lay out how the church protected some priests for decades and didn't remove them even as evidence of sexual abuse grew.

The release Tuesday of memos, letters and reports from the Chicago Archdiocese by lawyers for abuse victims provide new details on the global sex-abuse scandal that has plagued the Roman Catholic Church.

As part of a court mediation process with victims, the archdiocese agreed to turn over documents related to 30 priests who faced substantiated allegations of sexual offenses against children. The archdiocese has said it would make available information on 35 more priests, but hasn't provided a timeline for the release.

Archdiocese officials said last week the nearly eight-year mediation process has resulted in victims being paid about $100 million in compensation. The archdiocese said in a statement that its leaders made some decisions decades ago that are now difficult to justify. But they added the response followed the law at the time, while highlighting current efforts to protect children and help victims.