Archdiocese to Assess, Potentially Add Names to List of Sexual Abusers

Bellevue Reporter
February 1, 2016

http://www.bellevuereporter.com/news/367269761.html

A week after the Reporter revealed that a list of Seattle-area priests who had sexually abused children failed to include employees of the Archdiocese of Seattle who had been accused of the same crime, the organization said they will review the list and determine if more names need to be added.

"We will continue to review the list to determine if additional information or names should be included," the archdiocese said in a statement. They also encouraged anyone with information about sexual abuse by a member of the clergy, employee or a volunteer to come forward.

The archdiocese had released the list with the aim of transparency, with spokesperson Greg Magnoni telling the Reporter that it is an ongoing effort.

Seven priests included on the archdiocese's initial list had worked in Bellevue over sexual decades and had been accused multiple times in the past. More priests who had served across the Eastside were named by the archdiocese as sexual abusers, including three with ties to Mercer Island, one in Kirkland, one in Bothell and 13 in Kenmore.

The initiail list released by the archdiocese included 77 priests from the Seattle and other archdioceses. However, both community members and the Reporter identified alleged abusers who were not named on the list.

In a 2002 lawsuit, a victim of late-priest John Marsh — who worked in Bellevue at St. Madeleine Sophie from 1971-1972 and St. Mary's Provincialate from 1980-1984 — reported that he had told an employee of the archdiocese named James Walsh about Marsh abusing him in the early 1970s.

According to the victim, Walsh then served him intoxicating liquors and proceeded to sexually abuse and molest him.

Also absent from the list was a former youth minister named Jim Funnell who allegedly molested a child in the mid-1980s for more than a year while serving at St. John Vianney Church in Kirkland. A lawsuit filed by the victim was settled out of court by the parish district in 2012.

The archdiocese did not respond to questions about who is assessing which men to name on the list.

The former Archbishop of Seattle, Alex Brunett, formed two review boards to assess the church's response in 2003. The Case Review Board reviewed several cases of sexual assault and submitted a report that Brunett reportedly did not receive well. Shortly thereafter, both boards were disbanded.

The majority of the priests listed are now deceased. Those still alive were reportedly eventually defrocked by the church, sentenced to permanent prayer and penance or of unknown whereabouts.

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