Today’s Chicago Tribune and Suntimes both included detailed reports on the number of priests (plus a handful of laypersons, nuns, and civilians) who repeatedly and constantly sexually abused children within the 6 diocese in Illinois.
395, the vast majority who were hot under the collar.
That is 390 priests who repeatedly sexually assaulted children in their care, and whose superiors and diocese, would transfer the deviants, hide data about their crimes, blame/blackmail parents to whom the kids complained, lied under oath, destroyed documents and records of their crimes, and failed to warn other churches and diocese to whom they transferred the worst offenders (where they often repeated their sexual abuse of unsuspecting minors.
The Catholic Church has a lot to answer for, including ruining the lives of thousands of kids, in Cook its collar Counties alone. Many of these victims suffer PTSD, sexual dysfunction, inabiity to maintain sane relationships, terror-filled nightmares, drug abuse, suicide. . . . you name it, and being repeatedly abused by a black robed, white collared criminal adult tends to leave a mark. A permanent mark. Scarring. Mental illness and suffering.
Worst of all? To this very day, the Church had pretended, promised, guaranteed cooperation with investigating authorities, all the way back to the 1980s, when I first got involved in this type of litigation. (I was hired by a Lloyds’ heavy duty reinsurer and excess insurer, and had the dubious pleasure of reporting to them the cold, hard, nasty facts. It was a stomach turning experience) The reality was, is, and appears to continue to be the exact opposite of what the church leaders promised.
The multiple conspiracies, multiple cover-ups, interferance with the legal process in hundreds of cases, the deliberate lying under oath, destruction of records, and worst of all, sending the criminals away, even to countries with no extradition treaties — in a case like this one federal statute comes to mind. RICO — Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, intended for the mafia, but perfectly suited to the Catholic Church, at least in my name of the forest.