KANSAS CITY (MO)
Associated Press
January 25, 2019
By Margaret Stafford
A law firm that reviewed 75 years of clergy files in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas found 22 substantiated claims of sexual abuse against priests or other clerics, the archdiocese announced Friday.
The archdiocese released the names of all 22 men in its publication, The Leaven . None of the 22 men are currently ministering in the archdiocese, according to list. Eleven have died; seven have been “laicized,” meaning they were removed from clerical service; one was “removed from ministry;” one was last known to be at a friary in Denver; and the status of two others are unknown.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann said in a column in The Leaven that it is difficult to “discern the truth” of an event from decades ago, especially when the accused is deceased and other people’s memories have faded.
“The list that we are providing today is accurate based on the information we possess at this moment,” Naumann wrote.
The Husch Blackwell law firm reviewed about 1,080 clergy files to compile the list. A report based on the investigation has been shared with the Kansas attorney general’s office and the list will be updated if more information becomes available, the archbishop said.
The archdiocese hired the law firm in August when the Catholic Church was shaken by a grand jury report that found abuse by up to 300 priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses over the last 70 years, and reports that Pope Francis and other church leaders knew about sexual misconduct allegations against the former archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, but rehabilitated him anyway.
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