Phoenix Diocese Releases List of Clergy Involved in Abuse Cases

By Michael Clancy
The Republic
October 16, 2012

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20121016phoenix-diocese-releases-list-clergy-involved-abuse-cases.html?nclick_check=1

The Catholic Diocese of Phoenix has released a list of 29 clergy members who have been accused or convicted of abusing children, becoming one of only 25 dioceses in the United States that has published such a list.

The publication came on Tuesday as part of a release about the 10 years of the Dallas Charter to protect children from abusive priests and deacons.

The list includes 29 names, including at least one that had not been public before. But it does not include the names of priests who were deceased at the time of accusations against them.

Among those in the latter category is former Bishop James Rausch, who died in 1981.

A Republic listing of those accused of sexual abuse includes 39 names, 40 after the previously unknown priest, Harry Morgan, is added. It includes those who died prior to the accusations.

The diocese published four lists on its website. The first, List of Diocese of Phoenix Priests and Deacons who have been laicized and/or removed from ministry due to sexual misconduct with a minor, contains 15 names.

The second list, including those accused of sexual misconduct and have a case pending, has just one name.

The third list shows religious priests and deacons, and the list includes 10 names.

The fourth and final list, priests from other dioceses, has three names.

In Phoenix, the number of accusations has slowed to a trickle since the height of the scandal in 2002-03. Only one court case is pending, a civil action against the diocese.

It was unclear whether the report would include an accounting of costs. None had been posted as of midafternoon Tuesday.

The diocese reported expenditures in 2004 of $2.7 million.

A comprehensive accounting of costs would include legal settlements, defense attorneys, maintaining a diocesan abuse office, counseling for victims, therapy for accused priests and the cost of accused priests' ongoing living expenses.

Nationally, Catholic dioceses are believed to have spent more than $2 billion on the abuse scandal.