Chicago: More than half of parishes had priest accused of abuse

In Chicago, a careful analysis by activists based on the Church's own database and on court records has been simply dismissed by the diocese. The report concluded that over half of the diocese's parishes have at one time or another been served by a priest accused of sexual abuse. The diocesan response was that the priests concerned have been dismissed from ministry.

A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Chicago said officials have not seen the study, but told of the report's highlights questioned its conclusions.
"From the description of what we have heard, it appears that the analysis and conclusions are questionable," said Colleen Dolan of the archdiocese in an e-mailed statement. "The priests referred to in the ... report have all been removed and are not in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago."

This response is entirely beside the point. The report is not about the current situation, but an attempt to illustrate the geographical scale of the problem. Once again, the Church's response is to entirely ignore the evidence.
Image via Wikipedia

More than half of Chicago's Roman Catholic parishes have had a priest accused of sexually abusing a child working there at some point, according to a study released today that was quickly questioned by the Chicago Archdiocese.

In some cases, multiple priests accused of misconduct worked at the same church, according to the study, conducted by reform groups Voice of the Faithful, African American Advocates for Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

"In almost 60 percent of the parishes, an accused predator worked there," said Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP.

For example, from 1980 to 1990, 57.7% of Chicago parishes had an accused priest working there, said Bob Kopp, one of the study's researchers and vice president of Chicagoland Voice of the Faithful. Other decades examined in the study had similar percentages of affected parishes, he said.

Read more

Related articles

• News conference, concerned Catholics and clergy sex abuse victims will disclose and discuss a new study Monday, October 11th (chicagonow.com)
• Chicago Priests Challenging Cardinal George Receive Support (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
• Chicago Priests Call Cardinal George, President of U.S. Catholic Bishops, to Accountability (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)

New twist in Belgian Catholic abuse legal row

After the Belgian police controversially raided the bishops' offices and Cardinal Daneels' home, confiscating truckloads of material relating to allegations of church sexual abuse, two lower courts ruled that the raid had been inaoppropriate, and ordered that the material would be inadmissable as evidence. However, this is not over yet.  "Expatica" yesterday reported from Belgium that there has been a

New twist in Belgian Catholic abuse legal row

BRUSSELS: Belgium's highest court ordered magistrates on Tuesday to re-examine evidence seized by police relating to decades of child abuse and alleged Roman Catholic Church cover-ups.

The court overturned two previous decisions by lower courts that rendered inadmissible evidence taken from church headquarters, the home of a former archbishop and a church-backed commission investigating sex crimes perpetrated by priests.

Responding to lawyers acting for alleged victims who lodged appeals, the judges said the lower courts were wrong not to hear civil parties and therefore magistrates should look again at the evidence in a new light.

It means that truckloads of material gathered by police in spectacular raids in June that drew the ire of Pope Benedict XVI himself could potentially be used to relaunch state prosecutions for abuse.

However, it does not automatically mean a prosecution case will be launched, because the lower judges could reach the same decisions as before, saying they have done so this time while considering aggrieved parties' accusations.

The raids on June 24, conducted as a Vatican ambassador was meeting with church leaders, opened the eyes of the world to the scale of the scandal within the Belgian Catholic Church, but the church and retired archbishop, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, asked that the material seized be declared out of bounds.

Read more:

After the material was returned, the Church's own investigator completed and delivered a hard-hitting report on the abuse problem. When I reported on his findings, I overlooked one important detail.

Child psychologist Peter Adriaenssens then unleashed nationwide controversy with the release on September 10 of a report by a commission he led which revealed nearly 500 people reported abuses by priests since the 1950s and 13 victims committed suicide.

Adriaenssens subsequently called on the pope to resign.

Related articles

• Belgian Cardinal Attempted to Secure Silence on Abuse (clericalabusewatch.blogspot.com)
• Belgian Bishops Put Money Before Victims (clericalabusewatch.blogspot.com)
• Belgian Cardinal: "Damage Control" Before Concern For Victims (clericalabusewatch.blogspot.com)
• Belgian Abuse Report: "Almost Every Diocese". (clericalabusewatch.blogspot.com)

• Godfried Danneels, Belgian Cardinal, Offered To Keep Sex Abuse Case Quiet Until Bishop's Retirement (huffingtonpost.com)
• Belgian child abuse report exposes Catholic clergy (guardian.co.uk)