GALLUP (NM)
Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The Gallup Diocese has published an updated list of priests associated with the diocese who have credible allegations of clergy sexual abuse; however, the updated list omits two names of men who have been publicly identified in the past as abusers.
When Joseph Baca of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests met with Bishop Donald E. Pelotte of the Diocese of Gallup in May 2005, he presented the bishop with a list of 18 names of priests who had been associated with the diocese and were thought by SNAP to be possible abusers.
Pelotte agreed to print the names of priests with credible allegations.
In the June 2005 issue of The Voice of the Southwest, the official diocesan newspaper, ten of those names were listed as men with credible clergy abuse allegations. Nothing was said about the omitted names. And surprisingly, one of the omitted names was of a priest who had been publicly identified by the diocese as an abuser and whose alleged victim was paid a substantial settlement in the 1990s.