Study describes abuse

last updated 8 January 2015

Los Angeles

Roman Catholic officials in the Los Angeles Archdiocese once routinely reassigned clergy accused of sexual abuse, as long as they had undergone counseling, according to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times. The practice made the scope of the molestation scandal in the archdiocese far broader than was previously believed. Although abuse cases were reported in roughly 100 parishes, the accused priests were moved around so much that they served in more than three-quarters of the archdiocese’s 288 parishes, according to records dating to 1950. An archdiocese lawyer said church officials never knowingly put children at risk, but critics said that gave them little comfort. “As a parent, it makes me furious,” said Margaret Schettler, who has counseled abuse victims at one church. “It could have been my children.”