Lawyers Representing Abuse Victims Claim Archdiocese Excluded Them from Process in Document Release

CBS Chicago
November 11, 2014

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/11/11/lawyers-representing-abuse-victims-claim-archdiocese-excluded-them-from-process-in-document-release/

[Searchable: Accused Priests Who Worked in the Archdiocese of Chicago - BishopAccountability.org ]

Attorneys Marc Pearlman (L) and Jeff Anderson represent alleged victims of abuse. (Credit: Steve Miller)

Five days after the Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese released more documents related to allegations of abuse by priests, lawyers representing past victims say the archdiocese has excluded a lot.

“Very alarmed” is how attorneys for survivors of abuse describe their reaction to the release of new documents by the archdiocese.

Attorney Jeff Anderson says the archdiocese excluded attorneys from the process of what documents should be released, something he says the archdiocese did not do back in January when other documents were released.

Since then, Anderson says the archdiocese has cut off discussion with the attorneys, apparently because the archdiocese was upset with the attorneys’ handling of the documents after their release.

A reporter asked Anderson if he thinks the archdiocese excluded attorneys this time around as retribution.

“I would call the decision by the cardinal’s office not retribution. I would call it intentional exclusion,” he said.

Anderson says the archdiocese has now released files on 66 priests. He says he suspects there are many more who have been accused, but the archdiocese hasn’t released anything on them, he says.

The archdiocese says in a statement: “We stand by the integrity of this document release. We believe it is time to move beyond inflammatory and hollow rhetoric and seek to achieve understanding and reconciliation.”