Is anyone really surprised? Still, it's a good first step, making this go public…

6,000 documents show terrible child abuse by priests – and a coordinated effort to shield the predators

The Chicago diocese of the Catholic Church has released a trove of 6,000 documents that show terrible child abuse by priests—and a coordinated effort to shield the predators from victims’ families and the law.

The Catholic Church knowingly covered up years of abuse.

Many documents a terrible level of child abuse, including detailed allegations by young boys of sodomy, forced oral sex and, in one case, a young girl who recounted how a priest masturbated and ejaculated on top of her.

At one point, as many as 60 percent of the churches in the Chicago archdiocese had pedophile priests, according to a Voices of the Faithful study conducted in 2010.

The website Bishop Accountability keeps a detailed record of predator priests: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/il_chicago/

Many of the documents show how the bishops in charge of the Chicago archdiocese signed off on transfers of problem priests to other American parishes. In some cases, the priests were moved with their case file, alerting the new diocese that the incoming priest had disturbing carnal weaknesses. In other cases, there was no warning at all.

Chicago attorney Marc Pearlman, who, together with attorney Jeff Anderson, secured the release of the documents in a settlement with the church, says that they only cover 30 of 65 priests known to be sexually abusive in Chicago.

Of the 30 priests whose files were outed in the Chicago documents, only four were removed from the priesthood and four were convicted in secular courts. Only one was both convicted and defrocked. Fourteen of the priests are deceased.

http://www.andersonadvocates.com/documents/priest_files/HOLIHAN.pdf

http://tinyurl.com/nyybpc3

Pic: http://tinyurl.com/kflqk42

#childabuse

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