DALLAS (TX)
Morning News
July 5, 2019
By David Tarrant
An advocacy group for abuse survivors criticized the Dallas diocese this week for quietly adding a new name to its list of clergy accused of sexual abuse of a minor months after church leaders promised to be open and transparent in cases of clergy sex abuse.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, issued a statement Wednesday blasting the Dallas diocese for releasing incomplete information about an allegation regarding Fr. Peter Barusseau from 1960.
SNAP’s statement said the diocese should have included details about when the accusation against Barusseau surfaced and when diocesan officials decided the allegation was credible.
“Given that the Diocese of Dallas has only done the bare minimum when it comes to keeping communities informed about abusive priests, the news about Fr. Barusseau has us concerned that there are other accused priests that have been left off this list,” the statement said.
The Dallas diocese last month posted Barusseau’s name to its list of clergy with allegations of sexual abuse of a minor deemed credible by church officials. His inclusion came five months after the diocese released its initial list of 31 names of credibly accused clergy since 1950.
Dallas’ list was part of a statewide transparency effort amid public and law enforcement scrutiny on the Catholic Church worldwide over its handling of decades of sexual abuse claims against clergy members.
Combined, all Texas dioceses released lists that included nearly 300 names of clergy members who have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of children over the past seven decades.
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