In January, a Chicago law firm vowed to release the names of more than 300 Catholic clergy members with whom it has settled sexual abuse allegations. The release of those names has been delayed, according to a news release from the firm sent Friday.
“The report’s original release date was set for February 11, 2019, however the release of the report will be delayed for a few weeks due to the law firm’s involvement in a Minnesota trial that recently ended,” read an email from Jeff Anderson & Associates. “The firm continues to work diligently to finish this report and an announcement will be made in advance of the report’s release date.”
Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, of Jeff Anderson and Associates, made the announcement at a news conference in January that they expected to release the report on Feb. 11, complete with the names, histories and photos of each priest they’ve settled with in the past 20 years.
“There are over 300 survivors who had the courage to come to us privately and work with us,” Anderson said. “Most all of those offenders ... we made known public. But not all of them.”
None of the settlements was confidential, Anderson said. The attorneys urged each of the Catholic dioceses in the state to publicly identify more than 500 unnamed clergy members whose dark pasts intentionally were kept under wraps by church officials, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said.
