Dear Friends,
Welcome to Abuse Tracker’s new home. BishopAccountability.org is honored that Kathy Shaw and the National Catholic Reporter have asked us to take on the hosting of Abuse Tracker, the definitive news blog of the abuse crisis (see a brief description of BishopAccountability.org and its mission). As many of you know, Abuse Tracker is now beginning the third “phase” in its eventful history:
1) Abuse Tracker was started by Bill Mitchell of the Poynter Institute and premiered on March 15, 2002. (See the first week of Abuse Tracker.) Poynter is “a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalists,” and the first posts of Abuse Tracker were intended to help reporters keep up with fast-breaking coverage of the sexual abuse crisis. Mitchell shared the posting duties with a small team of volunteers, of whom Kathy Shaw, then the religion reporter for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, was the most prolific. (See a profile of Kathy Shaw.) By the end of 2002, Abuse Tracker had become Ms. Shaw’s daily routine, and she has been blogging the abuse crisis ever since. If you want to suggest an article for listing in Abuse Tracker, or would just like to thank Ms. Shaw for her valuable work, she can be reached at kashaw@peoplepc.com. Poynter carried Abuse Tracker on its site until December 30, 2003 (see Poynter’s archive of its Abuse Tracker work).
2) On December 31, 2003, the National Catholic Reporter began to host the blog. NCR has covered the crisis since 1983, and a partial archive of its contributions may be found at its Crisis in the Church page. NCR hosted Abuse Tracker for three years.
3) BishopAccountability.org began hosting Abuse Tracker on December 20, 2006. Kathy Shaw will continue as the blogger, and we will maintain her selection criteria unchanged. Abuse Tracker will continue to blog:
- News about the abuse crisis in the United States and in other countries.
- News about sexual abuse in Roman Catholicism and in other denominations and religions.
- News coverage and commentary from analysts of every position and persuasion.
Archives of old Abuse Tracker entries have been maintained on the Poynter and NCR sites. The NCR archives have been transferred to BishopAccountability.org as part of the December 20, 2006 transition. Please see our note on new provisions for searching that archive. The older archives on the Poynter site can be accessed by date, either directly or through a link on the new Abuse Tracker homepage.
We intend to maintain the high standards of service set by the Poynter Institute and NCR during their hosting of Abuse Tracker. Our goal has been to maintain the look and feel and the functionality of the NCR version of Abuse Tracker. Please write to us at staff@bishop-accountability.org if you have any service problems or concerns during this transition.
Thanks for visiting Abuse Tracker in its new home.
All best,
Terry McKiernan
Anne Barrett Doyle
Waltham, Massachusetts
December 20, 2006