GEORGIA
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A victims’ support group says Atlanta’s top Catholic cleric isn’t being transparent about child sexual abuse by priests, instead withholding records that could protect children and help survivors.
For more than a year, the group has been pressing Archbishop Wilton Gregory to reveal the identities of any priests, deacons, brothers or nuns accused of molesting children who spent time working in the Atlanta area. The nationwide Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, wants a list of names posted on the archdiocese website, something more than 30 Roman Catholic bishops across the country have already done.
Such a list would likely include names that have never been publicized, where accusations were handled internally then locked away in church archives.
But Gregory, SNAP members claim, is being stubbornly opaque. About a half dozen activists, most of them victims, staged a small protest this week on the sidewalk outside the Cathedral of Christ the King in Buckhead, holding up posters that said “Protect children” and “Keep kids safe.”
“We think it’s time to stop the secrecy,” SNAP Outreach Director Barbara Dorris said. “We think it’s time to start putting the protection of children first.”
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