North Dakota Dioceses Should Release Names of Priests

By Tom Dennis
Grand Forks Herald
January 27, 2016

http://www.grandforksherald.com/opinion/our-opinion/3933657-our-opinion-north-dakota-dioceses-should-release-names-priests

Two weeks ago, the Archdiocese of Seattle published a list of its clergy and other employees who'd been credibly accused of sexually assaulting children.

The archdiocese took this step on its own—not because of a court ruling, not because a legal settlement forced its hand, but because the publication was the right thing to do.

"This action is being taken in the interest of further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward," as the archbishop of Seattle wrote in a letter to the archdiocese.

North Dakota's two Roman Catholic dioceses should follow the Seattle archdiocese's lead, and release their own lists of priests who've been accused.

Thus far, the North Dakota dioceses have refused to do so, a Forum News Service story reported on Sunday ("Lists of North Dakota priests accused of sex abuse still under wraps," Page A4).

According to the story, the Fargo and Bismarck dioceses "each rejected a request to release a complete list of priests who ever spent time in the diocese and were accused of sexual abuse."

On Tuesday, The Forum newspaper in Fargo—which, like the Herald, is owned by parent company Forum Communications—editorialized against the dioceses' secrecy.

For "the Catholic church is not just another public or private institution," The Forum wrote in its editorial.

"The priest sex scandal is not a routine matter of employee privacy. The two North Dakota dioceses do not exist in isolation from a worldwide scandal that has rocked the church for at least a decade.

"No less than Pope Francis has pledged again and again to root out the evil of priest sexual abuse. He has been extraordinarily candid about the problem, and has emphasized the vital need for the church to be transparent and cooperative as the church struggles to put the scandal to rest."

Today, the Herald joins The Forum in calling on the North Dakota dioceses to release the names.

The way forward from one of the darkest chapters in church history has to involve such openness. For as the pope recognized, at the heart of the worldwide child-sex-abuse scandal is the issue of broken trust.

Church leaders must know that regaining this trust won't be automatic. The trust has to be earned.

And one way of advancing that process is to be forthright about the past, even at the risk of prompting lawsuits from parishioners who'll step forward with accusations.

A number of Minnesota dioceses have released their own lists of accused priests' names. Several dioceses in surrounding states have done the same—including the Diocese of Helena, Mont., which last year posted on its website the names of priests and other employees who'd been accused of molesting children.

But most of those postings were forced on the dioceses by lawsuits and court decisions. In contrast, the Archdiocese of Seattle made its decision on its own—again, "in the interest of further transparency and accountability," as the archbishop wrote.

Those are traits that rebuild trust, thus serving the church's long-term interests. And as such, they're worth striving for, even at some sacrifice of short-term privacy and financial concerns, the archdiocese decided.

Moreover, the decision squarely puts the well-being of the victims of abuse first.

For those reasons and in acknowledgement of the harm that secrecy has caused, the North Dakota dioceses should decide the same way.