BishopAccountability.org

Our view: Erie diocese takes another welcome step [Editorial]

Erie Times-News
March 25, 2018

http://www.goerie.com/opinion/20180325/our-view-erie-diocese-takes-another-welcome-step

The Catholic Diocese of Erie announced on Wednesday that in the coming weeks it will release the names of priests in the diocese who had been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.

That has taken too long. But it’s a welcome step in the right direction nevertheless.

The Erie diocese made the announcement a day after the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo released the names of the accused there. That diocese identified 42 accused priests, 24 of whom are dead.

When Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico releases the list, the 13-county, 202,000-member Erie diocese will join a relatively small minority of U.S. dioceses that have taken that step. The diocese said it declared its intention to do so in the face of questions about the Buffalo diocese’s actions.

It’s another step in a general move toward more transparency in the diocese under Persico, who became bishop in 2012. Persico previously instituted a policy of identifying priests credibly accused in current cases and has followed through, most recently in February.

“The faithful have a right to know. ... It seemed like the right thing to do,” Persico said in March 2017.

Word last week that transparency will be extended into the past is a positive development. But the release of those names was likely inevitable in any event.

Since 2016, a Pennsylvania grand jury has been investigating the Erie diocese’s handling of abusive priests. Five other Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania also face grand jury probes. The Erie diocese said it has been cooperating with the grand jury.

Grand jury proceedings are secret. But the process is expected to lead to the fullest accounting yet of the sexual abuse scandal in the Erie diocese.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office is expected to release the grand jury’s report when it’s issued, likely sometime this year. The report is expected to name abusive priests and, if a previous state grand jury proceeding is any indication, how their crimes were concealed and by whom.

A grand jury report two years ago on the probe of the Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown catalogued that diocese’s history of crimes and cover-ups. Those sickening findings named abusive priests and their enablers.

A similar accounting is needed in this corner of the state. The Erie Times-News previously reported the identities of a number of the priests involved in the face of resistance by Persico’s predecessor, Bishop Donald W. Trautman.

As we did that reporting, we learned how important it was for many survivors of abuse that the crimes and sins against them came to light. And that they learned they weren’t alone in their pain.




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