BishopAccountability.org
 
  Victims Rights Group
Wants Priests' Names

St. Louis Post-Dispatch [Belleville IL]
Downloaded May 26, 2004

A national victims' rights group on Tuesday called on Belleville Bishop Wilton D. Gregory to publish on the diocese Web site, in its newspaper and parish bulletins the names of 12 area priests removed a decade ago for abuse.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests also renewed complaints about what they labeled the diocese's "hardball legal tactics" used to keep documents sealed, delay cases and defend priests in abuse cases.

"As leader of the Catholic Bishop's Conference (Gregory) should be the most compassionate," said SNAP director David Clohessy, one of 10 protesters who gathered in front of the Belleville chancery.

Church officials could not be reached for comment.

The group also criticized Gregory saying he failed to offer counseling to at least one abuse victim, James Wisniewski, despite church promises to do so.

Wisniewski, speaking in public for the first time about the abuse, called on the church to accept responsibility for its actions, offer an explanation and meet its obligations to victims.