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	Column: O'Malley's First Step By Bill Donovan The Advocate August 31, 2011 http://www.advocateweekly.com/ci_18796013 On a list released last week by the office of Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, 159 names appeared. That total includes the names of 137 priests and deacons where accusations of abuse have been substantiated and 22 more whose cases are still winding their way through the church's canonical justice system. There was no groundbreaking going on here. All of these cases had already been uncovered and reported a long time ago. The thing that makes the list important is that, for the first time, the Catholic Church formally acknowledged and named the Boston-area clergy whose exposure first ignited the American bonfire of a bitter, widespread child molestation scandal. The list had been sharply anticipated for years, especially by the victims and their families. It seems at first reading to represent a breath of fresh air. But you don't have to read far into a statement by Cardinal O'Malley (bostoncatholic.org) that describes the guidelines for assembling it before running into the chilly, careful language of lawyers practicing damage control. The archdiocese admits that the list could have contained 250 names. But 91 suspected priestly child abusers were left off. Sixty-two of those 91 names didn't make the list because they died before their cases could be fully proven and accusations made public. Twenty-two were excluded because their cases couldn't be proven, which meant the accusations against them were never made public. The remaining seven were omitted for similar reasons. The most important qualifier for making the list was apparently not a suspect's level of guilt or innocence, but simply whether or not the clergyman (they are all men) had ever been publicly accused. In other words, if the abuser hadn't already been publicly accused, regardless of any of the other aspects of the case, the church has decided no harm, no foul. What's even more disturbing is that it's clear there were a greater number than 250 clergymen accused of abuse in Boston. Cardinal O'Malley admits as much when he says why he has chosen to not list the names of priests who worked in the Boston Archdiocese, but were based outside when they were accused of their crimes: "I have decided not to include names of religious order priests or priests from other dioceses on our list because the Boston Archdiocese does not determine the outcome in such cases; that is the responsibility of the priest's order or diocese." Ouch. That doesn't sound like the statement of a spiritual leader who is seeking justice, or, failing that, the simple truth. That sounds more like the testimony of someone with one eye on the judge's gavel. In fact, it's difficult to not see self-serving legal reasons behind all of Cardinal O'Malley's rules for listing or not listing an accused priest. This public relations song and dance routine makes it difficult to believe that the Catholic Church in America honestly wants to finally resolve the terrible scandal that has shaken it to its very foundation all over the world. America's collision with clerical Catholic crime has been terrible, but just a little time spent reading how the same problem reared its hideous head in once devoutly Catholic Ireland and how arrogantly and slowly the Irish Catholic leadership responded demonstrates that this is certainly not an American-only disaster. It's good that the Boston Catholic Archdiocese has taken a step into the light, no matter how incomplete. And, as Cardinal O'Malley says, almost all of the abuse cases are old. But if the Catholic Church expects to stay alive in America or anywhere else in the modern world, it needs to use this crisis as the motivation to finally accept and ordain women as priests, and allow all its priests to marry and have families. No other solution will restore trust and bring people back to an ancient institution that came to the altar with too little, too late in its offering plate.
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