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  Los Angeles Archdiocese Releases Files on Priests Accused of Abuse

Catholic Explorer [Los Angeles CA]
October 13, 2005

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- The Los Angeles Archdiocese Oct. 12 released summaries of personnel files on 126 priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Some of the files go back to the 1930s.

They were released as part of settlement talks with attorneys representing some 560 people who have sued the archdiocese, claiming they were sexually abused as minors by Catholic clergy.

The files, posted on the archdiocesan Web site in a 155-page report, show that until recent years the archdiocese often returned accused priests to ministry after treatment -- a practice once common in almost all U.S. dioceses.

In other cases priests were removed from ministry or laicized. Some priests were already dead when the first allegation of abuse was lodged with the archdiocese.

In recent years the archdiocese has adopted a "zero tolerance" policy of permanently removing from ministry any priest who faces a substantiated accusation of sexually molesting a minor.

Most of the report posted on the Web consisted of one-page or two-page summations of the personnel records of accused priests: date of birth, date of ordination, dates of different parish, school or chaplaincy assignments, date and nature of any accusations found in the personnel record, disposition of the case, and so on.

In some cases the summary makes no reference to accusations at all. Tod M. Tamberg, archdiocesan spokesman, said that if an allegation came in the form of a lawsuit, it would be recorded in court filings, not in the confidential archdiocesan personnel records which formed the basis of the report.

In a number of cases, the summaries indicate that the first known accusation against a priest was made in 2002, when the clergy sex abuse scandal was making daily headlines across the country, or in 2003, the year in which California temporarily suspended its statute of limitations on civil lawsuits for sexual abuse of minors, opening the door for victims to make claims for abuse that occurred decades earlier. Some 800 claims against Catholic dioceses were filed statewide that year, including more than 500 in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, the largest archdiocese in the nation.

"In many cases we didn't know anything until 2002," Tamberg said.

The Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 13 that according to its analysis of the report and other data, incidents of clergy molestation of minors have been alleged in about 100 of the 288 parishes in the archdiocese. Because priests typically receive several different parish assignments over the years, however, three-fourths of the parishes in the archdiocese at one time or another had been served by one or more priests who have been accused of abuse, the newspaper said.

It said it found no pattern of poor or minority parishes receiving more of those priests than other parishes.

A small number of the cases involved religious brothers -- members of religious orders who were not ordained.

Some of the released reports indicate that a priest received extensive counseling and was restricted in ministry after an accusation of inappropriate conduct. Others indicate that archdiocesan officials did not regard a reported incident of hugging, or other conduct deemed inappropriate by the accuser, as sufficiently serious to merit counseling or restrictions.

Not all priests accused of abuse are listed in the report. In explanatory notes at the beginning of the report, the archdiocese said that the summaries were based on "proffers," legal documents reflecting information in archdiocesan personnel files. The archdiocesan attorneys had prepared those proffers for presentation to plaintiffs' attorneys, following court review for accuracy. Such documents were prepared only in cases in which facts were contested.

"Proffers have not been prepared for clergy whose conduct is not at issue in the current litigation and mediation process," the report said. "As a result, the total number of summaries is smaller than the number of alleged offenders."

The report said court rulings prevented the release of the proffers themselves but a recent ruling allowed the archdiocese to "release the underlying information."

Tamberg said someone studying the report with attention to the timeline of reported incidents and archdiocesan responses would see that the archdiocese's response evolved over time, to the point that now anyone who is known to have abused a child is permanently removed from all ministry.

 
 

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