Nine Additional Perpetrators Named in the New Report, Including Celebrated Father C.B. “Woody” Woodrich
(Saint Paul, MN) – We commend Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and his office on recognizing the opportunity the 2019 Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program of the Colorado Dioceses presented to unearth more abuses and offenders kept secret by the Catholic Bishops of Colorado, past and present. They are doing the work of gathering the evidence, exposing the perpetrators, and honoring the experiences of clergy abuse survivors; work that Archbishop Aquila and the Catholic Bishops of Colorado should have been doing for decades.
“All of this information – the reports of abuse, the reassignments, the self-serving playbook of clericalism – is well known to Archbishop Aquila and Diocesan leadership,” said Jeff Anderson of Jeff Anderson & Associates. “As revealing and vital as [the AG reports] are, Catholic leadership in Colorado possess in their secret archives a more complete picture; thousands of documents detailing the identities and deeds of perpetrators, when and where abuses occurred, and who was involved in covering it up. They have the power to release that information to the public at any time.”
The supplemental report released yesterday details 46 new, unique substantiated cases of clergy abuse and nine new names of perpetrators – increasing the total number of confirmed priest perpetrators from 43 in the original report to 52. Among those listed for the first time in this supplement is Father C.B. “Woody” Woodrich, a deceased priest widely celebrated in life for work with the homeless in the Archdiocese of Denver.
“It’s time for Archbishop Aquila to release Fr. Woodrich’s file to the public,” said Anderson. “It’s time for the Archbishop to take responsibility for the crimes of clergy committed in the shadows, just as they have taken responsibility for the all the good works performed out in the light. For the sake of survivors and the safety of children today, the Bishops must release the identities and known whereabouts of all known perpetrators of clergy sexual abuse – now.”