Commentary about the New ProPublica Database of Catholic Priests Across the U.S. "Credibly Accused" of Sexual Abuse

Ultimately @SNAPNetwork suggests that every diocese lists be made as complete as possible to protect children & give account towards healing of all affected by this ongoing travesty
Ideally lists should be cross referenced to include any visiting priest.https://t.co/Rx4w6ZxJxD

— William Beaulieu (@William08640111) January 27, 2020

Some commentary for you about the new ProPublica database of Catholic priests across the U.S. "credibly accused" of sexual abuse or misconduct, which is searchable online:

Ellis Simani and Ken Schwencke with Katie Zavadski and Lexi Churchill, "Credibly Accused: Search lists of U.S. Catholic clergy that have been deemed credibly accused of sexual abuse or misconduct":

The Catholic Church has not released a public list of clergy members who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct or assault. However, over the last year and a half U.S. dioceses and religious orders serving most of the Catholics in the country have released lists of “credibly accused” abusers who have served in their ranks, using their own criteria for whom to include. ProPublica collected these lists to provide a central location to search across all reports.

Lexi Churchill, Ellis Simani, and Topher Sanders, "Catholic Leaders Promised Transparency About Child Abuse. They Haven’t Delivered":

Over the last year and a half, the majority of U.S. dioceses, as well as nearly two dozen religious orders, have released lists of abusers currently or formerly in their ranks. The revelations were no coincidence: They were spurred by a 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report, which named hundreds of priests as part of a statewide clergy abuse investigation. Nationwide, the names of more than 5,800 clergy members have been released so far, representing the most comprehensive step toward transparency yet by a Catholic Church dogged by its long history of denying and burying abuse by priests. 

But even as bishops have dedicated these lists to abuse victims and depicted the disclosures as a public acknowledgement of victims’ suffering, it has become clear that numerous alleged abusers have been omitted and that there is no standard for determining who each diocese considers credibly accused.

Christopher White, "New database of abusive clergy will ‘put pressure’ on bishops to improve transparency":

"Nationwide, the names of more than 5,800 clergy members have been released so far, representing the most comprehensive step toward transparency yet by a Catholic Church dogged by its long history of denying and burying abuse by priests," write the researchers behind the ProPublica effort. 

According to them, when surveying the lists which led to their efforts to compile the names into one accessible and searchable database, "numerous alleged abusers have been omitted and that there is no standard for determining who each diocese considers credibly accused. ...

McKiernan also pointed out that many of the lists that do exist are incomplete and could be improved. 

"There are gaps, and what ProPublica has done will exert serious pressure on the dioceses to fill those gaps," he said. 

One feature he pointed to in the new online database is that it "conveys the inter-woven" nature of how priests are often mobile and can serve in various dioceses in different capacities over the course of their careers. 

Over the years, he pointed out, many dioceses have failed to crosslist priests who served in different dioceses, making unclear where and when the alleged abuse took place during their ministries. 

The public nature of the database, he said, will increase pressure for standardization when it comes to how diocesan lists are published. 

Adam Horowitz Law Firm Blog, "The Catholic Bishops' Lists of 'Credibly Cccused Priests' is Not What It Appears to Be":

A fascinating story has just come out showing how deceitful and self-serving Catholic bishops are when it comes to their lists of ‘credibly accused’ child molesting clerics. In short, it shows that most bishops provide inadequate and inaccurate information about these predator priests.

Why?  Well, Mary Gautier, a Catholic researcher at a Catholic school, wants us to believe that one reason is that "smaller dioceses with limited budgets" supposedly "lacking the money or staff to dig through their archives."

That's bunk. Where there's a will, there's a way. Any bishop who wants to compile a thorough list of predator priests, their work assignments and their whereabouts has or can get the resources to do that. 

Claudia Lauer, Meghan Hoyer, "The Associated Press: Hundreds of accused clergy left off church's sex abuse lists":

Victims' advocates had long criticized the Roman Catholic Church for not making public the names of credibly accused priests. Now, despite the dioceses' release of nearly 5,300 names, most in the last two years, critics say the lists are far from complete. 

An AP analysis found more than 900 clergy members accused of child sexual abuse who were missing from lists released by the dioceses and religious orders where they served.

The AP reached that number by matching those public diocesan lists against a database of accused priests tracked by the group BishopAccountability.org and then scouring bankruptcy documents, lawsuits, settlement information, grand jury reports and media accounts. 

More than a hundred of the former clergy members not listed by dioceses or religious orders had been charged with sexual crimes, including rape, solicitation and receiving or viewing child pornography. 

On top of that, the AP found another nearly 400 priests and clergy members who were accused of abuse while serving in dioceses that have not yet released any names.

"No one should think, 'Oh, the bishops are releasing their lists, there's nothing left to do,'" said Terence McKiernan, co-founder of BishopAccountability.org, who has been tracking the abuse crisis and cataloging accused priests for almost two decades, accumulating a database of thousands of priests. 

"There are a lot of holes in these lists," he said. "There's still a lot to do to get to actual, true transparency."

And not in the least unrelated: Eric Quintanar, "Report: New Orleans Saints Edited Local Pedophile Priest List, Victims' Lawyers Suggest":

Lawyers representing approximately two dozen victims of clergy sexual abuse have accused the New Orleans Saints of helping the local archdiocese of excluding names from a public list of priests accused of abusing minors, according to the Associated Press.  

The wire service also performed an analysis of the publicly disclosed list of accused priests and determined that the Catholic Church may have "underestimated the actual number of publicly accused clergy members in the region by at least 20."