May 06, 2005

Website shines light on clergy abuse

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KWMU

Maria Hickey, KWMU

ST. LOUIS, MO. (2005-05-05) A new Internet site is profiling Catholic clergy who allegedly have abused their power.

In St. Louis today, a national group called LAMPS said their goal is to remove church leaders and clergy who have been involved in cover-ups of misconduct: sexual, financial or otherwise.

President Glenna McKitterick says LAMPS intends to shed light on a culture of secrecy.

"You know sometimes true healing and change that is truly meaningful and trusted requires some exposure of the problem in order to heal the problem," McKitterick said.

McKitterick says so far there are about one-thousand profiles of clergy on the website. Those include links to media reports and other public documents.

One of the profiles is of St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke for what the website categorizes as an "abuse of power" in the struggle to gain control over St. Stanislaus' finances and governance.

The website is www.lampsforhealing.org.

Posted by kshaw at May 6, 2005 05:48 AM