The U.S. Justice Department, which last month launched a federal probe into clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church, has sent a sweeping call to Catholic dioceses across the country to preserve documents related to abuse.
The Catholic news site whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com Friday posted an Oct. 9 letter to Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, noting that the Justice Department “is investigating possible violations of federal law.” It requested to DiNardo that the nearly 200 U.S. dioceses “not destroy, discard, dispose of, delete or alter” documents related to its probe.
Rocco Palmo, the author of the site, only published the first page of the letter to DiNardo from William McSwain, U.