Harrisburg Catholic Diocese Names Priests Who Have Been Accused of Sexual Abuse

By Brandie Kessler
York Daily Record
August 1, 2018

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/08/01/pennsylvania-clergy-abuse-harrisburg-diocese-priests-named/879325002/

A Roman Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania released a list Wednesday of more than 70 of its clergy members accused of sexually abusing children in cases dating back decades.

Bishop Ronald Gainer, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, also announced sweeping changes to confidentiality policies and said the names of any men accused of such crimes would be removed from any place of honor in the diocese.

These changes pertain only to the Harrisburg diocese, which covers much of central Pennsylvania.

Gainer apologized profusely for abuses that occurred over many years. He said the church was releasing a list of every allegation made in recent decades against clergy in the diocese that had not been proven false.

Gainer said that when he became bishop in 2014, the diocese began working to verify the status of priests going back to the 1940s. He said the diocese wanted to release this list before, but the Pennsylvania attorney general's office asked them not to, so as not to interfere with its investigation of Catholic clergy abuses across the state.

List: The names of priests, clergy accused of child sexual abuse in Harrisburg

Aug. 1: Priest says he was sexually assaulted by two clergymen in New Jersey

Now that a state grand jury investigation is concluding, the diocese decided the time was right to release information it had gathered about its priests.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro's office issued a statement after the announcement, expressing criticism for the diocese's failure to be transparent in the past.

“It is long past due for the Diocese of Harrisburg to make public the names of predator priests within the Catholic Church,” said spokesman Joe Grace, in the written statement. “Their proclamations today only come after intense public pressure and in the face of the imminent release of the Grand Jury report exposing decades of child abuse and cover up.”

The statement went on to say that the attorney general's office will publish an "honest and comprehensive accounting of widespread sexual abuse by more than 300 priests" identified through the grand jury investigation into six dioceses.

The statement pointed out that the "true test" of the diocese's commitment to victims will be its future actions, and noted that the attorney general's office has called consistently for an elimination of the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse.

Diocese waives confidentiality obligations

Gainer said he learned that some survivors who had confidentiality agreements with the diocese have felt constrained by those agreements. He is waiving those confidentiality agreements. This is expected to be huge for survivors who want to tell their stories.

The bishop said the diocese’s website would have new information about how to protect children. He said the first thing the diocese will now do upon getting a report of abuse is contact law enforcement.

Calling the abuse by clergy a “dark chapter ... a very sad chapter,” Gainer also noted the clergy doing good work “in a very tough environment.”

He said Catholic Charities spent $8.4 million on programs to help those in need last year.

At the news conference in Harrisburg on Wednesday morning, the diocese distributed a list of more than 70 names of men accused of child sexual abuse. None of those named are currently in the ministry or teaching, a spokesman said.

The allegations are divided into three categories:

Allegations where abuse first alleged while accused was living;

Accusations after the accused died;

Cases in which the accused allegedly abused in another diocese.

The diocese said there is no estimate as to how many children were abused.

Sharon Tell, 66, previously said she was sexually abused by a priest beginning when she was 12. She said the abuse occurred while her family attended a church in the Allentown, Pennsylvania, diocese. The priest, Monsignor James McHale, died in 1997.

She followed the news Wednesday.

Tell has followed the recent news coverage of the grand jury investigation into Pennsylvania dioceses. She said she hasn’t been impressed with the Harrisburg diocese’s recent actions.

“If they really cared about the people that were abused they wouldn’t have had to wait until it’s so public,” Tell said. “They could have done something to help us way back when.”

Susan Blum, 65, said she hopes the release of the names will help victims realize they weren’t the only ones abused.

“I’m hoping that this will be a start for healing for a lot of people,” said Blum.

In 2016, Blum, who until recently lived in York County, Pennsylvania, said she was sexually abused by a priest in the Boston area when she was 15 years old. She said she didn’t tell anyone about the abuse until about five years ago when she found the priest’s name on www.BishopAccountability.org, and saw that he had abused at least one other, and she knew she wasn’t alone.