National and statewide advocates on Wednesday called on the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland to release the names of 145 current or former priests who were identified in a Cuyahoga County grand jury report as child sexual abusers but whose names have remained a secret for more than two decades.

“We cannot protect kids with secrecy and silence,” Claudia Vercellotti, who leads the Ohio chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said at a news conference on the sidewalk outside of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Cleveland.

Vercellotti and Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the Boston-based research organization BishopAccountability.org, also released the names of 50 former priests or clergymen who worked in Cleveland and were credibly accused of child sexual abuse in other dioceses but whom the diocese here has yet to name.

The Cleveland diocese has named 50 priests on…