Clergy sex abuse topic of Santa Fe panel talk By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola Gallup Independent correspondent religion@gallupindependent.com November 3, 2017 ALBUQUERQUE — Officials with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe will hold their first public panel discussion about clergy sexual abuse Tuesday. Church leaders recently announced they would hold a series of five panel discussions in select Catholic parishes in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos, Clovis and Las Vegas, New Mexico. The first discussion will be held in Santa Fe Tuesday, and the final one will be held in Las Vegas Jan. 31. All are welcome to attend. “Our goal in hosting these discussions is to promote further transparency and healing, to open the lines of communication with the Catholic faithful and our communities, and to hopefully obtain additional ideas on how to better promote healing and prevent childhood sexual abuse in the future,” Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester wrote in a guest column published Sunday in the Albuquerque Journal. The announcement comes on the heels of two recent news developments. On Sept. 12, Wester released for the first time a list of names of 74 credibly accused abusers from the Santa Fe Archdiocese. In his guest column, the archbishop wrote about the second news event: “On Oct. 18, Judge Alan Malott, a district court judge in Albuquerque, ordered the public release of approximately 1,000 pages of documents related to three of the most prolific child abusers to have ever served in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe: Arthur Perrault, Sabine Griego and Jason Sigler.” Wester offered an apology to abused survivors and their families for the sexual abuse of children in the archdiocese. “It is difficult to put into words my sadness and shame over the betrayal of trust by members of the clergy who were supposed to love and protect our children and young people, and for the pain and suffering endured by victims of this abuse,” he wrote. “I offer my sincere apology on behalf of the Archdiocese to survivors and their families and my continued commitment to support and assist you on your road to healing and recovery.” The apparent openness of the upcoming Archdiocese of Santa Fe panel discussions is in contrast to the series of visits being offered in the Diocese of Gallup by Bishop James S. Wall. As part of the non-monetary provisions of the Gallup Diocese’s Chapter 11 plan of reorganization, Wall agreed to visit every Catholic school and parish where an abuser was assigned and “provide a forum/discussion during his visit to address questions and comments.” Wall has not provided any public forum or discussion that has addressed any questions or comments. Instead, he has interpreted the non-monetary provisions as allowing him to hold healing services, where he reads the same pre-written script from a notebook and then meets privately with abuse survivors and their family members after the service. Panel discussion schedule Each Archdiocese of Santa Fe clergy sexual abuse panel discussion is scheduled from 6:30-8:30 p.m., with the following dates and locations: Tuesday, Nov. 7: St. Anne’s Catholic Church, in the parish hall, 511 Alicia St., Santa Fe. Monday, Dec. 4: San Felipe de Neri Catholic Church, in the school gym located at 2000 Lomas N.W., Albuquerque; free parking is available in the lot on the west side of the gym. Thursday, Dec. 14: Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, in the parish hall, 205 Don Fernando, Taos. Tuesday, Jan. 16: Sacred Heart Catholic Church, in the parish hall, 921 N. Merriwether St., Clovis. Wednesday, Jan. 31: Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, in the parish hall, 811 Sixth St., Las Vegas Celine Baca Radigan, the communications director for the archdiocese, did not respond to a request for further information regarding the upcoming panel discussions.

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