Documenting the Catholic Sexual Abuse and Financial Crisis – Data on bishops, priests, brothers, nuns, Pope Francis, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Monday, December 23, 2024
Database of Publicly Accused Roman Catholic Priests, Nuns, Brothers, Deacons, and
Seminarians
Welcome to our revised Database of Accused. Useful changes in this revised
version are:
The database is now searchable/sortable by religious order.
You can now click on an accused person's name in one of the lists
(by diocese, religious order, state, or alphabetical) and view a single
linkable database entry. The single detailed entry displays all the
sources
we have assembled for that entry.
The revised database is now readable and easy to use on mobile devices.
The photos are larger and the sources are much more user-friendly. If we don’t
have a photo for an accused person, we provide a convenient way for you to send us one. Many
thanks for your help!
We are busy adding other sorts and features - these additions will
be much easier to make in this new version. Please
write to us with
suggestions: what new sorts and features would you like us to add?
Creating this new version was a complex task; we are continuing to test the
database and improve it. Please let us know
if you discover problems that need to be fixed.
This database provides convenient access, for law enforcement and other
interested persons, to the names of all U.S. Catholic clergy accused of
sexually abusing children and/or possessing child abuse images, commonly
referred to as child pornography. Links are provided to the publicly filed
court documents and mainstream media articles that are the sources for this
database, and a factual summary of the allegations is provided for each
accused person. This database continues and extends the work done by Jason
Berry (in Lead Us Not into Temptation), the Linkup (in their Fallen Catholic
Clergy banner), Sylvia Demarest (in her private database), and Survivors
First (in their public one). See our overview. for more
details. The Diocese of Tucson, which published the
first diocesan list on
June 21, 2002, and other
dioceses that published early lists, are precursors too. Their efforts were
based on internal diocesan lists (see
a sample from Boston) maintained during the 1990s.
Our Database of Publicly Accused does not state or imply that individuals
facing allegations are guilty of a crime or liable for civil claims. The
reports contained in the database are merely allegations. The U.S. legal
system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent
until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil
actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff
proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part
of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our
posting policy.