BALTIMORE (MD)
WYPR - National Public Radio [Baltimore MD]
April 28, 2026
By Scott Maucione
The names of people who concealed child sexual abuse in the Baltimore Catholic Archdiocese must remain redacted, the Maryland Supreme Court ruled Monday.
Justice Jonathan Biran wrote that the court may not order the disclosure of secret grand jury material for the purpose of holding someone accountable in the court of public opinion.
The decision will keep 17 names of people who allegedly protected child abusers in the church under wraps.
“Petitioners would face the court of public opinion without any effective means of rebutting The Office of the Attorney General’s accusations,” Biran wrote. “This would defeat one of the main purposes of the grand jury process: preventing unindicted persons from being ‘held up to public ridicule.’ A contrary result also would undermine the efficacy of the grand jury as an investigative tool.”
Theresa Lancaster, a lawyer representing survivors was disappointed by the ruling.
“By not naming the names of the people in charge that move these perverted priests from parish to parish, that’s more cover up,” Lancaster said. “It’s exactly what they’ve been doing for hundreds of years.”
The Maryland Attorney General report on the archdiocese named more than 150 staff members who conducted abuse and redacted 35 complicit in the abuse.
The Archdiocese said it respects the court’s decision.
“Such protection prohibits the Attorney General from publicly naming individuals who were neither accused of, nor indicted for, crimes without any meaningful opportunity to defend themselves. The court’s decision affirms that the Attorney General’s efforts to disclose the names of individuals who stand accused of no crime would violate state law surrounding ground jury proceedings and result in serious reputational harm to several individuals who stand accused of no crime,” said Christian Kendzierski, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
A Baltimore Circuit judge ordered the release of those names, but 18 people appealed. One of those appeals was dismissed, the rest went to the state Supreme Court.
Some of the names were outed soon after the AG’s report.