CHICAGO (IL)
Boston.com
By TAMMY WEBBER / Associated Press / January 15, 2014
CHICAGO (AP) — The Archdiocese of Chicago will hand over thousands of pages of documents involving clergy sex abuse on Wednesday to victims’ attorneys, who will make them public next week as part of a yearslong attempt to hold the church accountable for how it handled abuse allegations, including concealing crimes and putting priests in a position to continue molesting children.
The nation’s third-largest archdiocese agreed to release the files as part of settlements with abuse victims, and will include complaints, personnel documents and other files for about 30 priests with substantiated abuse allegations.
The documents are similar to disclosures made in other dioceses in the U.S. in recent years that showed how the church shielded priests and failed to report child sex abuse to authorities. Chicago officials said most of the abuse occurred before 1988 and none after 1996.
‘‘Until there is public disclosure and transparency … there is no way people can learn about it and make sure it does not happen again,’’ said Chicago attorney Marc Pearlman, who has represented about 200 abuse victims of clergy abuse in the Chicago area. He said he has been working to get the church to release the documents since 2005.
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