From the Sun-Times, the Cardinal’s response:
"You read it and you weep," George said. "For the many missteps in responding to the accusations of sexual abuse of minors by Father McCormack, I must accept responsibility. And I do. For the tragedy of allowing children to be in the presence of a priest against whom a current allegation of sexual abuse had been made, I am truly sorry."
The two reports included an audit of how the archdiocese handled the allegations against McCormack and a review of the archdiocese’s monitoring system for priests accused of abuse.
The audit, by Defenbaugh & Associates, an international security consulting firm, outlines numerous occasions when church officials could have intervened to remove McCormack, 37, from ministry but did not, dating to when he was a seminarian.
In the review of the archdiocese’s monitoring system for accused pedophile priests, Terry Childers, a clinical social worker and consultant to the U.S. Courts and Federal Judicial Center on sex offender supervision, said the monitoring system allows accused priests to remain anonymous — a state in which sex offenders "thrive."
When George learned McCormack had been questioned by police but that authorities did not feel they had enough evidence to charge him with a crime, the cardinal refused to remove the young, popular priest from ministry — despite a "precautionary" recommendation from his own review board that McCormack be yanked from St. Agatha.
"For not following [the review board’s] advice . . . I am deeply regretful and sorry," George said.
Childers’ report notes that 18 priests accused of sexually abusing minors are being "monitored" ineffectually by the archdiocese in various settings by "monitors" — three priests, two nuns and a deacon — none of whom has received any training about sex offender management.
I actually find this last nugget the most shocking. If anyone should have learned anything over the past few years is that this crisis is rooted not only in the deep personal sin of the perpetrators, but in the insular, moat-building, institution-protecting nature of the response. It’s just like money. Foxes, henhouse and all that. Crazy.
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