MAINE
Portland Press Herald
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer
Larry Gray arrived at St. Maximilian Kolbe in Scarborough to sing with the choir July 3 when the priest greeted him and pointed out an unusual insert in the church bulletin.
The bulletin contained the names of nine priests, all now dead, accused of sexually abusing children in Maine decades ago. One of those listed was the Rev. James Vallely, the priest Gray reported as having sexually abused him repeatedly when he was an altar boy growing up on Portland's West End in the 1950s.
Circulating the list - both in church bulletins across the state and in a news release - was an unprecedented step for Maine's Roman Catholic Church. The Diocese of Portland has generally protected the privacy of accused priests. It opposed legal efforts that opened up state records on a total of 25 dead priests and church officials.
The decision to identify nine of those priests reflects the continuing pressure on the U.S. church for more openness as more victims come forward, courts issue rulings and the Vatican defrocks accused priests a handful at a time.