Months after documents showed it had concealed the sexual abuse of children by priests for decades, the Archdiocese of Chicago today released files on three dozen more abusive clergy members to fulfill Cardinal Francis George's pledge to do so before he retires.
"We cannot change the past but we hope we can rebuild trust through honest and open dialogue," George said in a statement released overnight. "Child abuse is a crime and a sin."
The archdiocese released the files on 30 abusive priests in January as part of a legal settlement, and it posted on its website today the internal records related to 36 others.
Altogether, the 15,000 pages of records show how the archdiocese treated abuse allegations from the early 1950s until recently.
They only cover cases in which the archdiocese substantiated the abuse accusations, and don't include those in which a priest died before his accuser came forward.
"Cardinal George wanted it finished on his watch," said John O'Malley, special counsel to the archbishop for misconduct issues.
O'Malley said George didn't want Bishop Blase Cupich to have to deal with the issue when he assumes leadership of the nation's third largest archdiocese later this month.
A report provided by the archdiocese to The Associated Press and other media this week suggested that the documents released today would be similar to those made public in January.
Those records described how the archdiocese hid the histories of abusive priests moving between parishes, did not swiftly remove the men from the priesthood, and in some cases helped them remain priests for years after allegations against them were deemed credible.
In one case, for example, a priest who was removed from the ministry after admitting to sexually molesting two boys 19 years earlier was reinstated in 1995 under a set of strict guidelines by then-Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.
Bernardin said the priest, John Calicott, posed "no significant risk to children" if he continued therapy.
In 2002, George removed Calicott and several other priests after Catholic bishops called for the removal from ministry of any priest against whom an abuse allegation had been substantiated.
