List Released Of Catholic Clergy Accused Of Sexual Assault In NY

The journalism site ProPublica, a Patch Partner, has compiled the most comprehensive list so far of Catholic clergy “credibly accused” of sexual abuse. The list includes many abusers from New York. However, it does not include priests from the Diocese of Rockville Centre, which has not publicly released the names “credibly accused” abusers.

Along with the list, ProPublica outlines the challenges of identifying offenders long after such widespread abuse became known.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre is one of the largest in the United States. With more than 1.5 million Catholics, it is the ninth-largest diocese in the country, out of nearly 200.

But the Diocese of Rockville Centre has not been without accusations of sexual abuse by priests. Last February, a group of attorneys released a report detailing accusations against 51 priests and other staff at churches across Long Island that went back decades.

Three people also filed a lawsuit alleging that the late Bishop John McGann sexually abused them.

And the Diocese is currently facing dozens of lawsuits from people who claim they were abused by clergy. The suits were filed under the New York State Child Victims Act, which created a one-year window for past victims of sexual abuse to file suit against their abusers, even though the original statute of limitations passed. The Diocese is trying to have those lawsuits overturned.

“The diocese has released the names of all clergy, employees and volunteers that we are aware of having ever been accused of the sexual abuse of a minor (whether credible or not) to the proper law enforcement authorities,” Diocesan spokesman Sean Dolan told Patch.

From ProPublica:

Over the last year and a half, the majority of U.S. dioceses, as well as nearly two dozen religious orders, have released lists of abusers currently or formerly in their ranks.

The revelations were no coincidence: They were spurred by a 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report, which named hundreds of priests as part of a statewide clergy abuse investigation.

Nationwide, the names of more than 5,800 clergy members have been released so far, representing the most comprehensive step toward transparency yet by a Catholic Church dogged by its long history of denying and burying abuse by priests.

But even as bishops have dedicated these lists to abuse victims and depicted the disclosures as a public acknowledgment of victims’ suffering, it has become clear that numerous alleged abusers have been omitted and that there is no standard for determining who each diocese considers credibly accused.

You can search the database of credibly accused priests by clicking here.

ProPublica has collected the 178 lists released by U.S. dioceses and religious orders as of Jan. 20 and created a searchable database that allows users to look up clergy members by name, diocese or parish. This represents the first comprehensive picture of the information released publicly by bishops around the country. Some names appear multiple times. In many cases, that accounts for priests who were accused in more than one location. In other instances, dioceses have acknowledged when priests who served in their jurisdiction have been reported for abuse elsewhere.

Kathleen McChesney, a former FBI official who helped establish a new set of child protection protocols within the USCCB [U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops] in the early 2000s, has urged bishops and religious orders for nearly two decades to create a comprehensive list of accused clergy. She said our database will allow the public to better track dioceses’ disclosures, rather than seeing each list in isolation.

“People don’t know where to look,” McChesney said. “The contribution of the one list will help a lot of people to perhaps identify someone that they believe abused them.”

Still, much crucial information remains missing. Despite the recent surge of releases, 41 dioceses and dozens more religious orders have yet to publish lists, including five of seven dioceses in Florida, home to more than 2 million Catholics.