Religion Clause reports on a new study from Voice of the Faithful that shows Chicago priests accused of sexual misconduct and abuse are often assigned to parishes in zip codes that are predominantly African-American and/or low median household incomes.
After months of analysis, the Chicagoland VOTF affiliate in conjunction with SNAP, the African American Advocates of Clergy Sexual Abuse, and bishopaccountability.org is reporting on how priests credibly accused of sexual abuse in that diocese have been placed in parishes. The pattern shows that the 97 priests who could be tracked served at approximately 60% of the Chicago parishes from 1917 through 2009. More critically, the assignments seem to cluster in the less-wealthy parishes and in those that primarily serve minority communities. In addition, 63 of those 97 credibly accused priests were housed at the same location in the same year (sometimes at institutions for retired priests). Press release here
Read the report HERE