ARCHDIOCESE MAY RELEASE NAMES OF SEX-CRIMINAL CHRISTIAN PRIESTS BY YEAR'S END

Subject:	ARCHDIOCESE MAY RELEASE NAMES OF SEX-CRIMINAL CHRISTIAN PRIESTS BY YEAR'S END
Date:	Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:54:36 GMT

Catholic archdiocese may release names of sex-abuse priests by year's end

Cardinal Sean O'Malley speaks to the public at a "Theology on Tap"
program at Bad Abbotts, an Irish pub in Quincy center.
- Amelia Kunhardt/The Patriot Ledger

By Lane Lambert
The Patriot Ledger

Boston - A year ago, three groups organized by Catholic lay people
asked the Archdiocese of Boston to make public a list of priests
"credibly accused" of sexual abuse.

Such names were not made public at that time. In April, nine months
ago, church officials said they would probably revise that policy "in
the coming months."

Those names still are not public, and the response from the
archdiocese now: maybe the end of 2010.

Amid this week's news that three Irish priests accused of abuse
worked in the Boston area in the 1990s -- though not on the South
Shore -- are renewed calls for a complete list of priests credibly
accused of sexual abuse, from Voice Of The Faithful,
BishopAccountability.org and Survivors Network of those Abused by
Priests (SNAP).

"A list is warranted and necessary," said Anne Southwood of
Marshfield, chairwoman of Voice of the Faithful's Boston-area
council. "We need all the information we can get for the greater good
-- the protection of children."

Archdiocese spokesman Terrence Donilon said Thursday that Cardinal
Sean O'Malley and other church officials "are actively working on
this important undertaking" and hope to release more complete
information about credibly accused priests by the end of 2010.

Until then, he said, public identification of priests accused of
sexual abuse will continue to be limited by legal concerns for the
due-process rights of priests who have been accused but not proven to
be abusers.

The names of some priests accused of sexual abuse in the Boston area
have been public since 2003, when then-Attorney General Thomas Reilly
released a roster of 237 accused priests during investigations of the
clergy abuse scandal.

The archdiocese did not publish a list of its own, and the co-founder
of BishopAccountability.org, Terry McKiernan, said there's no mystery
why.

"They'd much rather not," he said, because an archdiocese list would
probably include priests no one has yet suspected -- and that would
likely prompt more victims to come forward, with the prospect of
additional lawsuits and payments.

David Clohessy of SNAP said that's what happened in Baltimore in
2002, as the Boston scandal was first unfolding.

When then-Cardinal William Keeler voluntarily posted the names of
about 60 accused priests in Baltimore, "they heard from 50 more
victims," Clohessy said.

Voice of the Faithful last formally asked for a list from the Boston
archdiocese this past summer, and in a Dec. 28 letter to Cardinal
O'Malley, BishopAccountability.org and SNAP said, "Please don't leave
the public in the dark."

All three lay groups noted that more than 20 other dioceses across
the country have published such lists.

This week, the Fairbanks, Alaska, diocese became the latest to issue
a full list. That action was part of a bankruptcy plan requiring the
diocese to pay $10 million to about 300 clergy sex abuse victims.

The Boston archdiocese this week released the names of three Irish
priests who had served in this region and are accused of sexually
abusing children. That disclosure was prompted by
BishopAccountability.org, which put together a list of 70 Irish
priests accused of abuse who served in the United States.

In late December the organization asked the archdiocese to identify
any of those priests who had served in Boston.

More at:
http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x690803053/Catholic-archdiocese-may-release-names-of-sex-abuse-priests-by-year-s-end

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

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