Monday, February 18, 2013

LA church adds priests to child abuse list

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is not releasing any further information after adding 24 priests and brothers to its list of clergy accused of child molestation.
The Los Angeles Times said Wednesday the archdiocese will not provide information about the number of accusers, the dates of the abuse or where the clergy worked.

The names were disclosed in a two-page report posted on the archdiocese's website last month, with 12,000 pages of records related to the internal handling of abuse claims.

None of the named men is currently working as a minister in the archdiocese, according to the report.

A lawyer for the archdiocese, J. Michael Hennigan, denied the church was attempting to bury the list by including it in the 12,000 pages of records, and said the two dozen men accused have never been sued in court.

Hennigan said the disclosure of the information was completely voluntary.

In the mid-2000s, during a similar scandal, the archdiocese released much more information, including the names of 236 priests and the dates the abuse allegedly occurred, as well as the number of accusers.

Prosecutors said they are reviewing the information. UPI

FACTS & FIGURES

The Catholic Church has been rocked in recent decades by accusations that it tried to cover up the sexual abuse of children by priests and has paid out billions in settlements to abuse victims, bankrupting several U.S. dioceses. Daily Star

Sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests has been widely reported throughout the world, with the countries of Canada, Ireland, United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Belgium, France, Germany and Australia receiving the most attention. The United States and Ireland are the only countries that conducted nationwide inquiries. digitaljournal.com

In the U.S., Ireland, the Channel Islands, the list seems to go on and on -- new sordid stories of child sexual abuse are being investigated, at times, linking to a disturbing hierarchy of silence in institutions which were considered "sacred," -- be it the Catholic Church, the BBC or even Penn State football. The Huffington Post

The majority of the sexual abuse by Catholic priests takes place with children between the ages of 11 and 14. The Huffington Post

On Jan. 31, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles released 12,000 pages of internal files on priests accused of sexually abusing children. NY Times