Cardinal George reacted Monday to the landmark clergy abuse settlement in Los Angeles

Cardinal George who was attending a dedication of a new senior residence in Chicago on Monday offered his thoughts about the Los Angeles settlement saying, "The process is come to a conclusion, and anything that helps healing and brings a sense of order and peace to victims' lives is a very good thing. This is obviously a very large number of people, and I hope that the settlement will be very helpful to them. We all pray for that."

He also set the record straight over comments about Fr. McCormack's guilty plea made from his spokeswoman, Colleen Dolan.

"Abuse is abuse," George said. "A child's life is interrupted, and the consequences are severe. We had nothing to do with the pleading or anything else -- that was the state moving in a criminal case and the lawyers took care of that. So, whatever happened, it wasn't because of anything that the Archdiocese had anything to do with. We have to try to respond to the victims now, and we'll try to respond as best we can."

The process of formally removing Fr. McCormack from the priesthood which must also be passed through the Vatican is underway.