BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Banner [Baltimore MD]
May 8, 2023
By Liz Bowie, Dylan Segelbaum, Jessica Calefati and Tim Prudente
Following investigative news stories that lifted the veil of secrecy from a Maryland Attorney General’s report on clergy child sex abuse, survivors gathered Monday outside the Archdiocese of Baltimore offices to demand that five church officials be removed from the ministry and seven other priests be named.
David Lorenz and other members of Maryland’s chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests also called on Baltimore Archbishop William Lori to resign, but acknowledged that is unlikely to happen unless parishioners pressure the church for more accountability.
The group held the news conference in response to articles published last week in The Baltimore Sun and The Baltimore Banner that identified church officials and accused priests whose names were redacted from the attorney general’s report on child sex abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
The 456-page grand jury report was released last month and details decades of abuse and cover-ups within the Catholic Church. The report identifies 158 priests, most of them already known, within the archdiocese accused of the “sexual abuse” and “physical torture” of more than 600 victims over the past 80 years.
Redacted from the report are the names of five church officials who handled the allegations of abuse, as well as 10 clergy members who are presumed alive and not widely known to have been accused. Their names were redacted for procedural reasons; the investigation was conducted through a grand jury, which is confidential under state law.
At the press conference, Lorenz read out the names of three abusers and five officials whose names have been unmasked. The Rev. Samuel Lupico, the Rev. Joseph O’Meara and the Rev. John Peter Krzyanski are the three priests whose names were made public in a Banner story. “They are all still at large. They are out there. And now that we know those names, children are no longer in harm’s way — in as much harm’s way,” Lorenz said.
But seven priests’ names still remain redacted, and the survivors called for the archdiocese to make those names known.
“They could be out there at schools or placed next to schools or playgrounds, and no one is any the wiser that these are abusive people,” he said. “They are capable of releasing those names. They could have released those names years ago.”
The five officials are the Most Revs. Richard Woy, G. Michael Schleupner, J. Bruce Jarboe, George B. Moeller and W. Francis Malooly, the retired bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington. Malooly’s identification was made by Terry McKiernan, the founder of BishopAccountability.org, a Massachusetts nonprofit that collects documents related to clergy sexual abuse cases, and published by The Banner and The Sun.
The report blamed much of the coverup on those five, particularly Malooly (identified as Official C) and Woy (identified as Official B) in the report. The two clergy are mentioned more than any other of the officials as taking roles in the cover-up of clergy abuse.
Malooly retired in 2021 as bishop of Wilmington and previously served as auxiliary bishop of Baltimore. The report shows Malooly handled allegations of abuse in Baltimore for roughly two decades and failed to report some cases to authorities.
Addressing news reporters Monday, Lorenz urged Archbishop Lori to step in amd remove the five from active ministry. “They were driven and motivated purely for protecting the institution and the priests who were abusers. Lori has known about them, and yet he keeps them on. … and they still minister in parishes,” Lorenz said.
A spokesperson for the archdiocese did not respond to a request for comment on the abuse survivors’ demands.
The fallout from the news stories has already begun. Woy resigned from the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center’s board of directors on Friday.
Mary Ann Hodes, a spokesperson for the Towson hospital, said Monday the board had accepted Woy’s resignation. Woy currently serves as pastor at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Crofton, but he previously served the archdiocese as vicar general, chancellor, director of the office of child and youth protection, and director of clergy personnel.
Woy was appointed to the medical center’s board by Lori. In the 1990s, Woy handled abuse allegations made against the Rev. Joseph Maskell, a subject of the 2017 Netflix documentary series “The Keepers.” The archdiocese movedMaskell from one parish to another after parents reported his inappropriate behavior with children. He ended up atthe all-girls Archbishop Keough High School. At least 39 people have reported that they or others they know were sexually abused by Maskell, according to the report. Maskell was placed on administrative leave and resigned in 1994, before moving to Ireland.
Bracing for negative publicity following the series’ release in 2017, the medical center board’s chairman at the time, former state Senator Francis X. Kelly, sought to oust Woy. He failed because Lori intervened, writing in a letter at the time that Woy had his “unqualified support” and was “known for his tough stance on child abuse.”
The group of survivors said Lori must go because he is allowing priests who covered up the crimes to remain in ministry. “It is time for him to step aside and be removed. And he should not be granted the golden parachute. It needs to send a message to all the other officials, that if you allow these enablers in your parishes, then then you will be brought to justice, right?” Lorenz said.
Lorenz thanked reporters from The Sun and The Banner for the investigations that unveiled the names. The rival news organizations, he said, had together worked “to help protect Maryland children.”
Attorney General Anthony Brown has said his office will return to court and argue for all the names to be released.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert Taylor Jr. has sealed the proceedings and arguments over the redactions are to continue behind closed doors. The issue of the hidden names has provoked finger-pointing between the church and the attorney general’s office. Last month, Brown said the archdiocese may “legally release those names to the public at any moment.” The attorney general’s office said itredacted the names to head off any argument that the full report should not be released.
The archdiocese has taken a position that it’s bound by the court from releasing the names. The attorney general’s office disputes that position.
Frank Schindler, 72, one of the survivors of clergy sexual abuse, spoke at the news conference about the perpetrators as well as the people who are protecting them in the Catholic church. Schindler said the systemic coverup of sexual abuse must be addressed.
”Hopefully, we will get the rest of those names out,” said Schindler, a clinical psychologist who lives in Canton. “Hopefully, we will make those kinds of changes.”
That’s one reason, he said, that survivors feel Lori needs to resign. He’s repeatedly stated that “this is a thing of the past,” Schindler said.
”At the exact same time, he refuses to release the names of perpetrators and those who protect perpetrators,” Schindler said. “I don’t consider that to be a very honest moral stance from somebody who’s supposed to assume the moral leadership of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.”