BishopAccountability.org
	Victims: Church should ID abusive priests on the Web By Lisa Rathke Boston.com August 8, 2007 http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2007/08/08/victims_ church_should_id_abusive_priests_on_the_web/ BURLINGTON, Vt. — Victims of priest sex abuse on Wednesday called on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington to post information about admitted or accused clergy on its web site, in church bulletins and newspapers. "We're urging the bishop to do what Jesus taught us to do, which is ... to go out in the cold and dark and help the lost and wounded sheep and help them," said David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a support group. "And to go into every single parish where a predator worked and beg the victims and witnesses to come forward and get help and contact police," said Clohessy, whose group held its first Vermont support meeting Tuesday. Under pressure, 15 other dioceses have publicly identified abusive clergy, Clohessy said. Bishop Salvatore Matano, who was out of town Wednesday, said in a written statement issued by the Diocese that he's reluctant to post the information online. "It is not a simple task to list persons as guilty of the alleged misconduct whose cases are either still under review by the Office of the Attorney General, or before the court in cases of civil litigation awaiting trial, or where there has been no admission of guilt or corroborated and substantiated evidence," he said. Currently, the Diocese is facing about two dozen civil suits by alleged priest sex victims. Standing outside the Diocese offices, three men and one woman spoke of the urgency of getting help and protecting other children from such abuse. "The victims need to come forward because they cannot live a full life, a free life hiding this abuse," said a Burlington area woman who hid her face in the hood of a sweat shirt, and did not want to be identified. "We have sodomy, rape, physical abuse, threats, all of which happened to me and the people who were at the meeting last night. You can't live like this. You need help." Clohessy, who said he and his siblings were molested by a Missouri priest, described the abuse as a cancer that "eats away at you." "We firmly believe that people recover from childhood sex abuse in all kinds of different ways but the one strategy that always fails is to do nothing," he said.
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