LOS ANGELES (CA)
BishopAccountability.org
BishopAccountability.org discovered this document on the website of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It lists 49 “names of clergy from a follow up review of Archdiocesan files, and names of clergy involved in Clergy I litigation which were not previously posted.” The list includes 24 names of accused priests not previously known.
In a letter to Archbishop Gomez, this organization urged him to make public the allegations against the priests and brothers, as well as their career histories. Such information has been provided by the archdiocese when they released lists of names in the past. We also expressed concern that this list, which has apparently existed since October 2008, has not been made public in a proper way, and that children have been put at risk as a result.
The PDF properties of the document show that it was created and presumably posted on January 31, 2013. No announcement was made by the archdiocese of the document’s publication, although it is clearly related to the archdiocese’s release on the same day of clergy files, under the nonmonetary terms of the 2007 settlement. Archbishop Gomez did not mention the release of the Final Addendum in his January 31, 2013 letter.
This release of names is momentous. Perhaps only when Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore released his list on September 25, 2002, have so many names of accused priests come into the public domain by a bishop’s actions. On several occasions, bishops have been compelled to release names by survivors’ nonmonetary conditions in a bankruptcy proceeding (e.g., Bishop Kettler in Fairbanks) or by a grand jury report (Cardinal Rigali, who removed 21 priests in Philadelphia), but Archbishop Gomez’ release of 24 new names is a remarkable and disturbing development.
The release of the names was first reported in L.A. Archdiocese Adds Priests’ Names to Abuse List, by Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times (2/13/13).
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