By Doug J. Swanson
Dallas Morning News
October 30, 2004

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws
/dn/religion/stories/103104dnmetpriests.80b89.html

For 11 years, Dallas lawyer Sylvia Demarest and her staff have collected and cataloged information on thousands of Catholic priests accused of sexual misconduct. Last week, surrounded by stacks of boxes, Ms. Demarest began taking her research public.

KIM RITZENTHALER/DMN Sylvia Demarest (right) and her assistant, Trish McLelland, prepare the 90 boxes of files that accompany the database. Her database – and about 90 accompanying boxes of paper files – will be shipped to a Web site operator in Boston.

BishopAccountability.org expects to post the database online by early next year.

"It'll be the most comprehensive database of priests with allegations and convictions in the United States, and probably in the world," said Paul Baier, co-director of the site.

The database contains the names of about 2,600 "priest perpetrators" and other Catholic officials who have been accused of sexually abusing children, Ms. Demarest said. The information was assembled from public sources, such as court filings and press reports.

Each entry lists an accused priest's name and the time, place and nature of the alleged misconduct. The database also will show whether a lawsuit or criminal charges resulted.

David Clohessy, executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, welcomed the database posting.

"This is just a huge public service," he said. "I'm thrilled it will be in good hands and will be accessible, and won't sit idly on a shelf."

Those who have questions about the backgrounds of individual priests can use it for research, he said.

"We get calls all the time from Catholic laypeople saying, 'There's this new guy Father Mike. I don't feel comfortable around him. What should I do?' "

The existence of the database also might encourage more victims of sexual abuse by priests to come forward, Mr. Clohessy said.

"Every single victim who calls us says the same thing: 'I just want to make sure what happened to me won't happen to somebody else,' " he said. "Knowledge is power."

A study released in February by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops found that allegations of sexual abuse had been made against 4,392 priests from 1950 to 2002. But the survey did not identify individual clergy.

"We don't have a database," said Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection for the bishops conference. "There is a difference of opinion among the bishops as to whether one should be maintained at the national level. That has not been resolved."

The Archdiocese of Chicago operates a service through which members of the public may request in writing information on possible sexual abuse by individual priests in that diocese.

"We will tell you if there is reasonable cause to suspect," diocese spokesman James Dwyer said.

Ms. Demarest's database is believed to be the only one of national scope that identifies individual priests. She said she started working on it in 1993 while representing clients molested by Dallas priest Rudy Kos.

Jurors in the Kos civil trial ultimately awarded plaintiffs nearly $120 million, which was reduced to $31 million in a post-trial settlement. In criminal court, Mr. Kos was convicted on child sex abuse charges and sentenced to life in prison.

While researching the civil case, Ms. Demarest said, she realized information on other abusive priests was hard to find.

"All of this had been much concealed and out of public notice," she said. "We decided we were going to locate every case that had been filed."

Students and staffers later expanded the search beyond court filings to include news articles. Trish McLelland, assistant to Ms. Demarest, said she searches numerous news and "abuse tracker" databases daily for mentions of complaints filed against priests.

The 2,600 files she has compiled, Ms. Demarest said, probably represent only a fraction of the problem.

"We've captured maybe 25 percent to a third of the total universe of names," she said.

The cost in staff and personal time, she said, has been more than $1 million. She donated the database and the backup records to BishopAccountability.org "so they can take this and go farther with it," she said.

She hopes scholars studying the problem can use the material. The compilation could assist in identifying patterns of abusive behavior and help curtail it, she said.

"I've represented a large number of individuals who have been abused by men of God, and they never recover," she said. "If this saves one child from having to go through that, then it will have been worth it."