The Catholic Church in Illinois withheld the names of at least 500 priests accused of sexual abuse of minors, the state’s attorney general said Wednesday in a scathing report that accused the church of failing victims by neglecting to investigate their allegations.
The preliminary report by Attorney General Lisa Madigan concludes that the Catholic dioceses in Illinois are incapable of investigating themselves and “will not resolve the clergy sexual abuse crisis on their own.”
The report said that 690 priests were accused of abuse, and only 185 names were made public by the dioceses as having been found credibly accused of abuse.
“The number of allegations above what was already public is shocking,” said Ms. Madigan in an interview.
Three-fourths of the allegations against clergy were either not investigated, or were investigated but not substantiated by the dioceses, the report found, based on files that the dioceses turned over to the attorney general’s office.
A pattern emerged from the files in which dioceses often failed to find a claim credible if there was only one victim, the report said. They also failed to investigate at all if the accused priest was deceased or reassigned, or belonged to a religious order (such as the Franciscans, Marists or Jesuits). The dioceses often discredited survivors’ claims by “focusing on the survivors’ personal lives,” the report said.
Once the attorney general’s office began investigating, the report said, the Illinois dioceses disclosed the names of 45 more clergy who were deemed by the church to be credibly accused of abusing minors — most of them cases the dioceses knew about for years.
“I want to express again the profound regret of the whole church for our failures to address the scourge of clerical sexual abuse,” Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, said in a statement. “It is the courage of victim-survivors that has shed purifying light on this dark chapter in church history.”
Full story at The New York Times.
“Incapable of Investigating Themselves” is putting it mildly. Take a look here at the Society of James Martin:
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/spokane-diocese-was-told-7-accused-priests-lived-at-gonzaga-27265
AG Madigan is entirely correct. The Church simply cannot root out its own moral corruption in that evil trusts and is pleased with itself. Recall that Satan was virtually perfect in his creation, but that his own evil, that he loved, caused God to throw him down from Heaven, regardless of Lucifer’s created beauty: “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation, until iniquity was found in thee. . . And thy heart was lifted up with thy beauty: thou hast lost thy wisdom in thy beauty, I have cast thee to the ground (Ezekiel 28: 15, 17). The NewChurch men, like C. Cupich, are lost in the sense of their own perfection, particularly when it comes to sexual ethics. They must be eliminated from any oversight activities.
Agreed, St. Christopher,
The Church has had scoundrels since Peter, thevfirst pope denied Jesis three times, within hours of the institution of the Eucharist.
History has shown time and time again that there are too many vested interests for meaningfu and credible reform.
In my opinion, this is further evidence why the Church needs a lay led group, independent of the Cardinals and Bishops, to investigate claims of abuse. For substantiated claims, after due process for the accused, the group would require laicization of the accused.
Cupich is a die-hard Democrat who works eagerly with political pro-aborts whom he praises.
Another prelate who has forsaken the Catholic Faith and Christ Himself.
There are surveys that indicate that Democrat and Republican Catholics are about 50-50 each. We all know folks who can’t understand how Democrats can call themselves Christian and folks who can’t understand how Republicans can call themselves Christian. It’s an indication of how divided our country. that we apply our political views to our church views. What we should be doing is applying our church teachings to our political views. What does Jesus say that we should do?
It’s like the fox guarding the hen house!!!!!!
Did these things happen under Bernardin? George? Cupich?