By Robert L. Smith
The Plain Dealer
May 14, 2010
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/05/catholic_group_demands_the_bis.html
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| Ann Barrett Doyle, co-director of the Boston-based BishopAccountability.org, requests that the Cleveland Catholic Diocese release the names of priests accused of sexually molesting minors during a protest Friday in front of St. John's Cathedral in Cleveland. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III / The Plain Dealer |
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Local protesters joined representatives of a national Catholic reform group outside the headquarters of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese this morning, calling on Bishop Richard Lennon to release the names of priests suspected of sexually abusing children.
They walked with Anne Barrett Doyle and Terry McKiernan, co-directors of BishopAccountability.org, as they sought to hand-deliver a letter asking Lennon to expose abusive priests.
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| Bishop Richard Lennon |
No one from the diocese came forward to meet the group and the letter was left with a receptionist.
Bill McGrath, a member of the recently closed St. Peter Church in downtown Cleveland, said he attended the demonstration to try and help save the Catholic church.
"We dearly love our church," said McGrath, who belongs to a local reform group called Code Purple. "We do not love the institution -- the bishops and the cardinals. They live in a world that has no room for democracy and openness. The laity has to take the leadership."
Diocese spokesman Robert Tayek would not comment on Friday's action. On Thursday, Tayek declined to explain why the diocese won't release names but said in a prepared statement that "to the best of our knowledge" no sex offending priests are currently active in the diocese.
Standing outside the entrance to St. John Cathedral, Doyle told local journalists and about a dozen demonstrators that the Cleveland diocese has the worst record in the nation for disclosing identities of priests accused of sexual abuse.
"We're here because this is one of the most secretive dioceses in the United States," she said.
She said her Boston-based group has followed Lennon since his days as Bishop of Boston and documented a pattern of concealment that she said continues in Cleveland.
Citing newspaper stories, court records and police reports, her group has identified on its website 45 Cleveland-area Catholic clerics publicly accused of sexual offenses over the last 50 years. It further notes that in 2004, Bishop Anthony Pilla, Lennon's predecessor, admitted that there had been sex abuse claims against 118 clergymen in the diocese since 1950.
"This means that at least 73 names are still secret," Doyle wrote in her letter to the bishop. "Who are these clerics? Who is watching them? Are they still on the payroll?"
Addressing the media, Doyle asked: "Is this diocese endangering children by withholding these names? It's very possible."
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