UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport
Visitors to the home page of BishopAccountability.org are greeted with the name of the site and the tag line, “Documenting the Abuse Crisis in the Roman Catholic Church.” Prominently displayed on the top of the home page is a feature called “Abuse Tracker,” while further down the page, the site solicits any visitors to “send us photos of survivors, offenders, affected parishes, and important events.”
What other conclusion are first-time visitors then supposed to reach except that any priests profiled on the site are guilty of horrific child sex abuse?
The “posting policy” of BishopAccountability.org (which is buried on its site) begins with the oft-seen boilerplate language attempting to shield the site from potential defamation suits: “In the U.S. legal system, all accused persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.” But the site clearly gives initial visitors the opposite impression: that any featured priests are guilty of criminal abuse.
And it is an incontrovertible fact that the site brazenly and openly features numerous priests whose complete innocence has already been long established and who are merely victims of public rumors, innuendos, and scams.
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From BishopAccountability.org
[Note that BishopAccountability.org is not alone in listing Muth, Haran, Lane, and O’Donovan. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles includes Haran on its list of accused priests
and the Archdiocese of Boston includes Lane and O’Donovan on its list
The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph commissioned a report that includes a discussion of Muth’s case, including Bishop Finn’s decision to remove Muth’s faculties
Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph via BishopAccountability.org]
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.