Files to Be Released in Wilmington Diocese Cases

By Beth Miller
News Journal
February 15, 2012

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120215/NEWS/120215020/Files-released-Wilmington-diocese-cases?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

The personnel records or more than a dozen priests and thousands of pages of court files from sexual abuse lawsuits filed against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington will be released later today by a Delaware-based advocacy group and a Boston-based watchdog group, and members of those groups now are calling for the resignations of three top diocesan officials.

The files emerge from agreements reached last year to settle the diocese's bankruptcy case, which included more than $77 million in payment to abuse survivors and their attorneys. The non-monetary terms of that settlement included release of these records.

Matthias Conaty, founder of Child Victims Voice, an advocacy group that fought for the 2007 Delaware law that made it possible for survivors to file the lawsuits, said he and others will speak at a 1 p.m. press conference outside the diocese offices in Wilmington. Conaty said the Boston-based nonprofit BishopAccountability.org will post a selection of the 30,000 documents released to the survivors.

"This is a victory for all of the brave men and women — terribly abused as little boys and little girls — who have forced this historic disclosure," Conaty said in a press release. "We are making these records public to protect children and warn parents in the towns where these dangerous men are now living. Just as importantly, these documents bare the ugly truth that trusted religious leaders callously put children at risk."

Conaty and his group are calling for the resignations of three diocesan officials, all monsignors -- J. Thomas Cini, Joseph Rebman and Clement Lemon -- who were involved in investigating the abuse cases for decades.

"The most important reason for giving a full accounting of what happened here in the Diocese of Wilmington is to do all we can to ensure this tragedy does not happen to one more child. A key part of that is to expose church officials who committed and concealed heinous crimes, and that's what we're doing today by giving the public access to these documents," Conaty said.

"It's alarming and unacceptable that several of the architects of the diocese's concealment strategies – J. Thomas Cini, Joseph Rebman, and Clement Lemon – still occupy powerful positions in this diocese," said Terence McKiernan, founder and president of BishopAccountability.org. "If Bishop Malooly truly intends to help survivors heal and keep children safe, he must immediately accept the resignations of these men from their posts and from active ministry."