Malooly Seen As Forceful Advocate for Victims, Nick Coltrain, The News Journal, July 8, 2008

Malooly Seen As Forceful Advocate for Victims

By Nick Coltrain
The News Journal

July 8, 2008

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080708/NEWS01/807080332

Malooly seen as forceful advocate for victims

Monday, during a press conference at which Malooly was named Wilmington Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli's successor, he said he'll continue to help Delaware victims who are part of a diocese still plagued with allegations and lawsuits.

"With the abuse crises, we've had many who have been hurt by things that have happened within the church, in our schools, in our parishes and we continue to try and respond," he said. "I've been involved with that for 25 years now -- not happily."

Representatives of two victim-advocacy groups in Delaware said they don't know much about the incoming bishop, but they hope Malooly will reach out to victims, much as he did in 2002 when he apologized to Baltimore-area victims in a series of "listening sessions" meant to ease the healing process.

The Rev. W. Francis Malooly, now serving as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, stands inside the Basilica of the Assumption in June 2007.

"There are many things that will help the survivors to heal," said Judy Miller of The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It's about more than money, it's about protecting the children."

Since 2002, the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington has settled at least six sexual-abuse lawsuits, including three since January. Five more are pending against one former priest, the Rev. Francis G. DeLuca, and lawyers say four more are expected.

After DeLuca was arrested for abusing a teenage family member in 2006, the diocese released the names of 20 priests, living and dead, against whom the diocese had received credible allegations of sexual abuse.

Saltarelli, who will continue to head the diocese until September, said he released the names to encourage other victims to come forward and seek help. Malooly used the same reason in 2002 when he supported the Baltimore archdiocese's decision to become one of the first to publish such names.

The move in Baltimore drew fire from some Catholics who said the treatment was unfair or hypocritical from an organization that originally buried allegations and moved the accused to new parishes, according to a 2002 article in the National Catholic Reporter.

"The victims have taken priority here," Malooly told the Reporter in 2002. "If there is one victim who comes forward because he or she now knows that the perpetrator did not victimize only them, I think that's a major move forward."

Victims' advocacy groups want more.

"I would hope he would continue to do that, not that he would just continue to publish the names but to go to the parishes," said Ed Burke of the northern Delaware chapter of Voice of the Faithful. "I think the people have the right to know where these people served and if there were mistakes made, then acknowledge the mistakes."

As part of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, Malooly also helped write -- and revise in 2005 -- the Catholic Church's national zero-tolerance policy for child abuse, outlined in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

Burke and Miller, the two victims' advocates, hope he'll enforce that zero-tolerance policy vigorously in Delaware.

"I will give this guy every chance to prove that he's a man of integrity and I hope he is," Burke said. "But I'm not going to judge him for a while."

Staff reporters Gary Soulsman and Esteban Parra contributed to this story. Contact Nick Coltrain at 324-2894 or ncoltrain@delawareonline.com