Catholic Archdiocese May Release Names of Sex abuse Priests by Years End, Lane Lambert, The Patriot Ledger, January 29, 2010

Catholic Archdiocese May Release Names of Sex-abuse Priests by Year’s End

By Lane Lambert
The Patriot Ledger
January 29, 2010

http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x690803053/Catholic-archdiocese-may-release-names-of-sex-abuse-priests-by-year-s-end

Cardinal Sean O'Malley speaks to the public at a "Theology on Tap" program at Bad Abbotts, an Irish pub in Quincy center.

BOSTON — A year ago, three groups organized by Catholic lay people asked the Archdiocese of Boston to make public a list of priests “credibly accused” of sexual abuse.

Such names were not made public at that time. In April, nine months ago, church officials said they would probably revise that policy “in the coming months.”

Those names still are not public, and the response from the archdiocese now: maybe the end of 2010.

Amid this week’s news that three Irish priests accused of abuse worked in the Boston area in the 1990s – though not on the South Shore – are renewed calls for a complete list of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse, from Voice Of The Faithful, BishopAccountability.org and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

“A list is warranted and necessary,” said Anne Southwood of Marshfield, chairwoman of Voice of the Faithful’s Boston-area council. “We need all the information we can get for the greater good – the protection of children.”

Archdiocese spokesman Terrence Donilon said Thursday that Cardinal Sean O’Malley and other church officials “are actively working on this important undertaking” and hope to release more complete information about credibly accused priests by the end of 2010.

Until then, he said, public identification of priests accused of sexual abuse will continue to be limited by legal concerns for the due-process rights of priests who have been accused but not proven to be abusers.

The names of some priests accused of sexual abuse in the Boston area have been public since 2003, when then-Attorney General Thomas Reilly released a roster of 237 accused priests during investigations of the clergy abuse scandal.

The archdiocese did not publish a list of its own, and the co-founder of BishopAccountability.org, Terry McKiernan, said there’s no mystery why.

“They’d much rather not,” he said, because an archdiocese list would probably include priests no one has yet suspected – and that would likely prompt more victims to come forward, with the prospect of additional lawsuits and payments.

David Clohessy of SNAP said that’s what happened in Baltimore in 2002, as the Boston scandal was first unfolding.

When then-Cardinal William Keeler voluntarily posted the names of about 60 accused priests in Baltimore, “they heard from 50 more victims,” Clohessy said.

Voice of the Faithful last formally asked for a list from the Boston archdiocese this past summer, and in a Dec. 28 letter to Cardinal O’Malley, BishopAccountability.org and SNAP said, “Please don’t leave the public in the dark.”

All three lay groups noted that more than 20 other dioceses across the country have published such lists.

This week, the Fairbanks, Alaska, diocese became the latest to issue a full list. That action was part of a bankruptcy plan requiring the diocese to pay $10 million to about 300 clergy sex abuse victims.

The Boston archdiocese this week released the names of three Irish priests who had served in this region and are accused of sexually abusing children. That disclosure was prompted by BishopAccountability.org, which put together a list of 70 Irish priests accused of abuse who served in the United States.

In late December the organization asked the archdiocese to identify any of those priests who had served in Boston.

Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.com