Chicago - Decades of Sex Abuse by Priests (Video)

Photo ~ FILE - This April 17, 2002 file photo shows Chicago Cardinal Francis George listening to reporters' questions before he left for Rome to meet with Vatican officials and other American cardinals about the child sex abuse scandals in the United States. Attorneys for sex abuse victims will post thousands of documents to a website Tuesday morning, Jan. 21, 2014, after receiving them from the Archdiocese of Chicago last week as part of legal settlements. Attorneys say the documents will show that the archdiocese concealed the abuse for decades. George says the disclosures are an attempt at transparency and to help victims heal. He’s also apologized to victims and area Catholics for the abuse. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File) (The Associated Press)

Thousands of pages of secret church documents released Tuesday as part of a court settlement provide an unprecedented and gut-wrenching look at how the Archdiocese of Chicago for years failed to protect children from abusive priests.

VIDEO

The documents provide new details and insights into how the nation's third-largest archdiocese quietly shuttled accused priests from parish to parish and failed to notify police of child abuse allegations. The paper trail, going back decades, also portrays painfully slow progress toward reform, accountability and openness.

Most of the 30 clergymen tied to the documents were not prosecuted. They were shielded by Roman Catholic Church officials who thought the men could be cured with counseling, by bishops blinded by a belief in second chances and forgiveness, and by leaders concerned a public scandal would damage the church's image.

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