SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Associated Press
May 4, 2019
By Noelle Bellow
The California attorney general’s office will review how all 12 Roman Catholic dioceses in the state handled allegations of child sexual abuse that have resulted in payouts of hundreds of millions of dollars to victims.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra sent out letters to the dioceses on Thursday, requesting that officials preserve documents relating to abuse allegations involving clergy, staffers and volunteers that were received from 1996 to the present.
The attorney general’s office will look into whether the archdiocese properly reported the allegations under California law.
The request could be the first step toward a full investigation of California dioceses, which serve an estimated 10 million worshippers.
Melanie Sakoda with Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) says she along with other advocates, feel the Catholic church isn’t transparent enough to do an investigation.
“In general they have underreported. I think they have minimized,” she said. “Until you get all of that information out there, you don’t have a good idea of what happened and you don’t know who knew what, who knew when, and what did they do about it. I think that’s what the attorney general is focusing on.”
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