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_Abyssinia
Guest
The Archdiocese of Boston on Thursday published a partial list of clergy members accused of sexual abuse, nearly a decade after a scandal erupted here involving widespread abuse by priests and revelations that the archdiocese had been shielding molesters for years.
Victim advocacy groups have long pressed the archdiocese to publish such a list, a step that a number of other dioceses have already taken. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley first suggested in 2009 that he would publish a list; diocesan officials said this week that it had taken two years to gather the necessary feedback and weigh complicated issues like the due process rights of priests whose cases had not been fully adjudicated.
In an open letter, Cardinal O’Malley said he had decided to publish a list of 132 priests and two deacons “after serious and thoughtful consideration and prayer.” They include priests whom the church or courts have found guilty of sexually abusing a child, others who left the priesthood before or after accusations of abuse and dead priests who have been publicly accused of abuse.
The list, published in a searchable database on the diocese’s Web site, also includes 22 current diocesan priests who remain on administrative leave while their cases are investigated.
Separately, Cardinal O’Malley has listed 25 priests who were publicly accused of molesting children but for whom the archdiocese found the accusations to be unsubstantiated.
nytimes.com/2011/08/26/us/26priests.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Victim advocacy groups have long pressed the archdiocese to publish such a list, a step that a number of other dioceses have already taken. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley first suggested in 2009 that he would publish a list; diocesan officials said this week that it had taken two years to gather the necessary feedback and weigh complicated issues like the due process rights of priests whose cases had not been fully adjudicated.
In an open letter, Cardinal O’Malley said he had decided to publish a list of 132 priests and two deacons “after serious and thoughtful consideration and prayer.” They include priests whom the church or courts have found guilty of sexually abusing a child, others who left the priesthood before or after accusations of abuse and dead priests who have been publicly accused of abuse.
The list, published in a searchable database on the diocese’s Web site, also includes 22 current diocesan priests who remain on administrative leave while their cases are investigated.
Separately, Cardinal O’Malley has listed 25 priests who were publicly accused of molesting children but for whom the archdiocese found the accusations to be unsubstantiated.
nytimes.com/2011/08/26/us/26priests.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss