SYRACUSE (NY)
CNYCentral
December 3, 2018
It’s a wound on the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse that will not heal anytime soon — many priests credibly accused of child sexual abuse.
On Monday, the diocese released the names of 57 priests in the local area with accusations that go back to 1950 in hopes of moving past the conversation of abuse in the Catholic Church that has been in the national spotlight since this summer’s investigation by the attorney general’s office of Pennsylvania, which claims more than 1,000 children where abused by more than 300 “predator priests” in Pennsylvania.
“It was smart to release the names,” said parishioner Bill Kinne. “We’ve go to pray and hope this will help heal and get over it.”
For years, many have pushed for the names to be made public. Bishop Robert Cunningham said he decided to release the names after much reflection and prayer.
And even though the list of names is shocking, some say it might not even be half of the clergy who offended.
“Every parish probably had a perpetrator and that every Catholic in their lifetime attending church in the Diocese of Syracuse probably ran into a perpetrator,” said victim advocate Patrick Wall.
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