Article published February 28, 2004
SEX-ABUSE CASES
Diocese will give names of accused; Toledo’s bishop says deceased won’t be ID’d
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
Reversing a longstanding policy, the Toledo Catholic Diocese said yesterday that it plans to release the names and status of priests who have been accused of sexually abusing minors.
The move would make Toledo one of a handful of U.S. dioceses that have released such information. Bishop Leonard Blair, who took over leadership of the 325,000-member diocese in December, said two weeks ago that 35 priests and one deacon in the Toledo diocese have faced such allegations since 1950.
At a news conference to discuss two national reports on clerical sexual abuse, Bishop Blair said yesterday that he "appreciated the concern" of those who want more than numbers and said he was prepared to provide a status report of the priests, by name, "as soon as we can reasonably put it together."
He had no specific timetable for releasing the report but added that he would not include the names of priests who are "long deceased ... and cannot defend themselves."
David Clohessy, national director of the victims’ advocacy group SNAP, said he knows of only three of the 195 U.S. dioceses that have released names of priests accused of sexual abuse.
Tony Comes, Claudia Vercellotti, and John Schoonmaker use play money to show what the church has paid lawyers.
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"The question is whether he will provide any new information or just take information that has already been reported elsewhere and compile it into one report," Mr. Clohessy said from St. Louis.
Claudia Vercellotti of the local SNAP chapter said Bishop Blair’s announcement was "definitely a step," but she called for area Catholics to withhold donations until church leaders provide "full disclosure without exception."
At the diocese’s news conference in the Catholic Center in downtown Toledo, Bishop Blair said it was "painful to hear" the results of the two national reports - one giving the numbers of allegations since 1950 and the other looking into the causes and context that led to the crisis.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned the study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which reported that 4 percent of the 109,694 priests, or 4,392, who served since 1950, have faced credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors. The figure in the 19-county Toledo diocese was 2 percent of the 1,753 clerics who served during that time.
A separate report by the church’s National Review Board was highly critical of bishops’ handling of the sexual abuse crisis. Bishops failed "to grasp the gravity of the problem," the NRB said.
It also said "the fear of scandal" caused some church leaders "to practice secrecy and concealment" and that "the threat of litigation caused some bishops to disregard their pastoral role and adopt an adversarial stance not worthy of the church."
Bishop Blair said he agreed with the NRB’s conclusions and said the two reports called to mind the sacrament of penance - "namely contrition, which is heartfelt sorrow for sins committed." He said the studies were a form of confession "by which we squarely face what has been done and take responsibility for it."
Bishop Blair said he recently mailed letters to victims of sexual abuse offering to meet with them but added the work "has only begun" for the church to do all it can to repair the harm.
Ms. Vercellotti and Jon Schoonmaker, heads of the local chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, held a news conference across the street from the Catholic Center yesterday.
They urged area Catholics to stop contributing to the diocese until it releases the names and the status of all priests and other church employees accused of sexual abuse, whether the alleged abusers are alive or dead and whether the victims were children or adults.
"No truth, no money," the SNAP leaders said.
Withholding names of any alleged abusers affiliated with the church excludes some victims from healing, Ms. Vercellotti said.
"Jesus never said, ‘I’ll protect only some of the lost sheep.’ Jesus protected all of the lost sheep. He didn’t pick and choose," she said.
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