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Baton Rouge list of Catholic clergy accused of sexual abuse to come Thursday
By Andrea Gallo
Three months after Bishop Michael Duca pledged to release a list of local Roman Catholic clergy who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors, the people of Baton Rouge will find out Thursday which allegations of abuse in his diocese have previously been shielded from the public. Duca is expected to release the list at noon Thursday, when he has scheduled a news conference. Catholic dioceses nationwide have been under pressure to name names since a Pennsylvania grand jury last August revealed that more than 300 predator priests had abused 1,000 victims. The report set off a new wave of scandal and devastation in a clergy sex abuse crisis that has plagued the Catholic Church worldwide. The news from Pennsylvania came about the same time as Duca's installation as bishop of Baton Rouge, and he and other bishops across Louisiana promised to release a full accounting of abuse allegations. "It is hard to publish this list for all to see, but real renewal and healing cannot take place until we acknowledge the truth of our past," Duca wrote in a letter read at each Mass in the diocese last weekend. "Yet even though in this moment we are rightly brought low, I have not lost hope." In advance of the list being released, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said the list would be "self-serving and incomplete" unless it includes photos of clerics, their work histories, names of religious order clerics, names of non-priest clerics accused of abuse and names of clerics who sexually abused adult parishioners as well. "Everyone should ask themselves — and church officials should be explaining — 'How do bishops and hundreds of church staff justify keeping the names of dozens of possibly dangerous priests secret for years and years?' " said David Clohessy, the former national director of SNAP. The Diocese of Baton Rouge will be the third in the state to release a list of credible sexual abuse allegations against clergy. The Archdiocese of New Orleans' list released in late 2018 included 57 clergy members, while the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux this year named 14 priests. In Baton Rouge, at least 15 past priests stand accused of sexually abusing more than 60 victims, according to a review by The Advocate that examined lawsuits and public allegations and included more than a dozen interviews. The Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge also reported in 2004 that 23 priests who had served in the diocese — 10 diocesan priests and 13 from religious orders — had been accused of sexual abuse. The diocese did not name them at the time. Some of the names expected on the Diocese of Baton Rouge list will have previously appeared on the Archdiocese of New Orleans list and a list that the Jesuit order released late last year of credibly accused priests. Eight priests on the New Orleans list had ties to Baton Rouge; the Diocese of Baton Rouge was carved out from the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1961. Two priests on the Jesuits' list had also served in the Diocese of Baton Rouge.
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