BALTIMORE — The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, which is meeting in Baltimore this week, will now face a lawsuit.
It's being filed today by six people who have accused Catholic priests of sexual abuse. The group is hoping this lawsuit will prevent bishops from keeping cases of abuse secret.
On Wednesday in Baltimore, sexual abuse survivors and their attorneys, along with victims advocates, will announce the details of the lawsuit. The suit names the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for hiding the known histories and identities of the accused clergy members from the public, parishioners and law enforcement.
They're demanding the release of files that would help them prove their allegations that some bishops were complicit in covering up the abuse and protecting priests. They also want a full disclosure of all of the known offenders from the nearly 200 dioceses across the country.
Six survivors from California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania will talk Wednesday about why they filed the suit together and why they're doing it now.
Later Wednesday afternoon, Loyola University Maryland will also hold a public forum to talk about the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.
