KCET study: Archdiocese put abusive priests in Latino parishes (video)

"SoCal Connected" aired a story tonight by reporter Vince Gonzales and producer Karen Foshay that analyzes where Los Angeles Archdiocese priests accused of sexual abuse were assigned. The key findings:

“SoCal Connected” has done a comprehensive data analysis of thousands of pages personnel records released by the church in January.

We tracked every accused Los Angeles priest found in those files since 1932. According to our analysis, over that time, 63 percent of the parishes in Los Angeles have had at least one priest on staff who’d been accused of sexual abuse. We also found some parishes had many more, like St. Alphonsus, which had eight; and Sacred Heart of Los Angeles, which had seven. At least 15 other parishes have had five or six accused priests. And our analysis showed many abusive priests served in Latino communities.

Richard Sipe/Former priest and author: "That's the pattern. That the poorer parishes, the Latino parishes, Latinos are much more reluctant to buck a priest.... I think the Latino community in the end is going to be very, very angry that they were used. They literally were dumped on, and I think your figures are going to show that."

Our data shows that out of the top ten parishes with the most accused priests, half are in Latino communities.

The story also runs a 1996 audio clip of the Archdiocese official in charge of a facility for accused priests discussing the "LA model" for dealing with pedophile clergy: sending them for treatment and sometimes getting them jobs while they proved they belonged back in parishes. The story opens with the experiences of Los Angeles author Daniel A. Olivas, based on the op-ed piece he wrote last month for the New York Times.