KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ After investigating Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Friday that he has referred 12 former clergy members for possible criminal prosecution.
Schmitt released a 329-page report Friday detailing his office's yearlong investigation that involved interviews with victims and a review of personnel records dating back to 1945 of more than 2,000 priests and 300 deacons, seminarians and religious women.
The attorney general's office found 163 clergy members who had been accused of sexual abuse or misconduct of minors.
Of the 163, one case is currently under investigation by the church and five cases are being investigated by local prosecutors.
Sixteen cases already had been referred for criminal prosecution in the past. Eighty-three of the clergy members are dead. Forty of the remaining cases have fallen outside of Missouri's statute of limitations for prosecution.
The remaining 12 cases are the most referrals for prosecution made by an attorney general so far, Schmitt's office said Friday.
Clergy placed in Missouri by religious orders affiliated with the Catholic Church, such as Jesuits or Dominicans, were not investigated because the attorney general's office was not given access to their personnel records. The report listed recommendations for the Catholic Church to follow, including assuming greater oversight and responsibility for visiting priests.
"I also want to thank the brave victims who had the courage to come forward and share their stories," Schmitt said. "And I'd also like to take the opportunity to speak directly to the victims. You didn't deserve this. None of this was your fault. This report, our referrals for criminal prosecution, our aggressive and substantive recommendations for reform can't erase the past. But they can change the trajectory of the future. It can lead to people being brought to justice, and hopefully make sure that this never happens again."
Victims and their advocates were pleased to hear that some priests had been referred for possible prosecution, but many expressed frustration that they had not been contacted.
"Silenced again," said Joe Eldred, an abuse victim and one of 30 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese that was settled for $10 million in 2014. "They're not really giving victims a voice.
"I knew the investigation had been opened, but this is the first that I've heard about the opportunity to talk to anybody about it. It doesn't seem right. To find out that we've been shut out again? We're very, very angry."
Rebecca Randles, a Kansas City attorney, has represented hundreds of clergy sex abuse victims.
"Our clients appreciate the Missouri attorney general referring cases for prosecution," she said. "God knows they have waited long enough.
"However, they would have liked to have been part of the process. They are going to feel disregarded and abused all over again. The weight of carrying the burden of victimization of sexual abuse is always compounded by not being heard, minimized and marginalized."
Randles said that after talking with the attorney general's investigators last week, her office had reached out to many of its hundreds of clients to prepare them for interviews.
"Those have not occurred," she said. "We also offered to provide the AG with all information that was not under protective order from our more than 25 years of investigating claims."
While her office stands ready to assist local prosecutors if they do prosecute any of the priests who were referred, Randles said, "We again ask the Missouri AG to dig deeper."
Randles said the number of accused priests in Missouri her office has compiled tops 200. She noted that several cardinals and bishops who have been accused of sexual abuse or failing to report it have ties to Missouri, including Cardinal Bernard Law, Cardinal Justin Rigali, Bishop Robert Finn, Bishop Joseph Hart and Bishop John J. Sullivan.
"Our list of rogues and scoundrels at the highest echelons is hardly matched by any other jurisdiction," she said. "There are still more out there who can still pose a danger to children.
The priest sex abuse issue exploded in August 2018 when a grand jury in Pennsylvania released a report finding that church leaders had covered up sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over seven decades. More than 1,000 child victims were identifiable from the internal church documents the grand jury examined, the report said.
The report contained horrific details of some of the abuse and prompted calls for change from Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
Shortly after the report was issued, then-Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley announced that his office was conducting a "thorough and robust investigation" of potential clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
"We intend to gather extensive evidence from the church, as well as from victims and their families and other persons who are not associated with the archdiocese," Hawley said at the time. "At the conclusion of this investigation, my office will issue a formal report setting out our findings. That report will also include any charging recommendations based on the evidence we discover in our investigation."
Hawley said his office had full cooperation from St. Louis church officials, and he encouraged the state's three other dioceses to allow similar investigations. Those dioceses, including Kansas City-St. Joseph, quickly pledged their cooperation as well.
Hawley was elected to the U.S. Senate in November, and Schmitt, his successor, continued the investigation.
As a father of young children and a lifelong Catholic, Schmitt said, "my heart absolutely breaks for the victims of this widespread abuse and cover-up from the very people we've entrusted with our spiritual lives.
"While the church instituted a number of meaningful reforms in 2002, that does not in any way diminish the pain of the abuse, the traumatic memories, the depression _ in some cases, suicide _ and other lifelong impacts of the acts of some members of the clergy and the actions of the church to cover it up. The betrayal of trust and of innocence is devastating, and in many instances, incomprehensible."
As Schmitt's investigation continued, the state's four dioceses released their own lists of accused priests. The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph last week named 24 credibly accused priests; the Archdiocese of St. Louis has identified 63 credibly accused priests plus three with substantiated allegations of child pornography; the Diocese of Jefferson City named 35 priests or religious brothers who have been credibly accused or removed from ministry out of concern for the safety of youth; and the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau named 16 who have been accused.
In Kansas, two of the state's four Catholic dioceses have released names of credibly accused priests.
In January, the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas released the names of 22 priests who it said have had substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors made against them in the past 75 years.
And in March, the Diocese of Salina published the names of 14 diocesan priests who it said have had substantiated allegations of abuse of a minor. The Wichita and Dodge City dioceses have not issued a list.
In February, the KBI announced it had opened an investigation into reports of sexual abuse in the four Catholic dioceses in Kansas, convening an internal task force of six special agents. The investigation was requested by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt to determine if any abuse cases should be prosecuted, the KBI said.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said in July that it had initiated 74 investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse committed by Catholic clergy members. The investigations, underway in 33 of Kansas' 105 counties, came after the agency received 119 reports from victims, the KBI said.
