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	Cleveland Diocese Should Reveal the Names of Abusive Priests: Editorial Plain Dealer June 13, 2010 http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/06/cleveland_diocese_should_revea.html "Our diocese is deeply committed to protecting our children and providing the safety and security that allows the harmonious development of their physical, moral and intellectual talents," writes Bishop Richard Lennon on the Cleveland Catholic Diocese website. The diocese could go a long way toward proving that by releasing the names of clergy credibly accused of preying on youngsters and lurking behind the robes of previous bishops. Lennon, who arrived in 2006, is not responsible for Cleveland's past failures to expose and prosecute abusive clergy members. But he is in a position to protect youngsters from now on and to provide some measure of justice for those previously abused. The Cleveland diocese must step up and reveal the names of clergymen against whom credible accusations of sexually abusing minors have been lodged. Currently, the district's website lists only a handful of names, although retired Cleveland Bishop Anthony Pilla said in 2004 that there had been as many as 118 priests accused of abuse since 1950. Baltimore, Philadelphia, Toledo and other dioceses have been much more forthcoming about predatory clergymen. Nor can Cleveland blame its sluggish response on a 2002 decision by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Brian Corrigan sealing grand jury documents about the scandal. The diocese is still free to release its own documents because "it's their information," the judge explained recently. Diocese spokesman Bob Tayek says many of the files are empty or contain incomprehensible scribbling. But after decades of covering up sexual abuse of its youngest members, the diocese has utterly exhausted its credibility. Let an independent panel see those files and release the names of those credibly accused. That would show that Lennon is truly committed to protecting youngsters -- and to keeping his word.
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