Church in Crisis
About This Section

Louisville Courier-Journal
September 29, 2002

http://www.courierjournal.com/cjextra/2002projects/priestabuse/stories/

[See the main page of this special section on the Church in Crisis.]

This special section contains detailed information about the 185 plaintiffs who have filed suit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville. They claim they were sexually abused as children by priests or others connected with the archdiocese.

It also gives information about the 25 priests and five others who have been accused of various forms of misconduct.

In addition, the section contains a comprehensive database summary of the lawsuits.

To gather the information, staff writers Deborah Yetter, Peter Smith, Andrew Wolfson and Gregory A. Hall interviewed 128 of the 185 people who have filed suits against the archdiocese. Plaintiffs were asked about their memories of the alleged abuse, much of which occurred 30 to 40 years ago.

In addition, every priest or other adult accused of abuse was sought for comment.

In cases where a person declined to be interviewed or could not be reached for comment, it was noted in the profile and information was gleaned from the lawsuits and other court filings.

The plaintiffs are grouped by the priest or other person accused. Each listing is further grouped by the parish or other assignment of the accused.

To analyze the information, Computer Assisted Reporting Director Mark Schaver constructed a database using information from the filed lawsuits and interviews.