A prominent lawyer for Boston-area clergy sex abuse victims on
Wednesday released a new list of accused abusers, saying it was time to
"end the secrecy."
The list includes previously undisclosed names
of 19 Catholic priests, brothers and one deacon who attorney Mitchell
Garabedian said were among those accused in the scores of cases his firm
settled with the church for "tens of millions" of dollars.
None
of the newly disclosed people on the list have been tried or convicted
of a crime, and at least 16 of the 19 are dead, including all who were
priests of the Boston Archdiocese.
Garabedian said he released the
names to protect the public, help victims heal and end what he says is a
culture of secrecy in the church that enabled abusers to get away with
their crimes for years.
Garabedian said he grew tired of waiting for Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley to release a similar list.
"We've
been waiting for O'Malley to come forward," he said. "I thought it was
his obligation to come forward, and we gave him time to come forward.
... It's time to end the secrecy."
The list included 117 names of those accused in cases settled by Garabedian's firm in roughly the last 15 years.
The
new names included 11 priests of the Boston archdiocese and one deacon.
The other seven names were of brothers and priests from various
religious orders.
Kelly Lynch, a spokeswoman for the Boston
Archdiocese, said the 12 men associated with the archdiocese are dead
and the 11 priests were deceased when they were first accused of
sexually abusing a child.
"Clearly, no child was put at risk because these names were not in the public domain," she said.
She
said the archdiocese was still working to disclose more information,
but it was a complex job because there are "serious due process
concerns" about releasing names of accused priests "whose guilt or
innocence has not been established."
Of the three men whose
identities are newly disclosed and who are still alive, two of them —
Nolan Farrell and Dennis Raeihle — are brothers with religious orders,
according to the group BishopAccountability.org, which tracks clergy sex abuse cases nationally.
Farrell's location could not immediately be determined.
BishopAccountability.org
said Raeihle was affiliated with the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement
in Garrison, N.Y. A call to the order was not immediately returned.
The
third man was the Rev. Donald Joyce of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate
in San Antonio, Texas. A spokesman for the order declined to comment.
BishopAccountability.org
said it now has 240 names of priests or other religious workers who
have substantive abuse accusations against them and who worked in Boston
at some point.
But Terence McKiernan of the group said there are likely
far more.
He said dioceses that have fully disclosed their numbers of
abusive priests have a far higher percentage of priests with substantive
abuse allegations than what's been revealed in Boston.
Garabedian
urged other attorneys who've handled clergy sex abuse cases to release
similar lists.
Attorney Carmen Durso, who's handled numerous cases in
the Boston area, said it was a good idea.
But he said he didn't think he
had any new names to disclose, and that releasing such names is
something the archdiocese should do without prodding.
Durso said when an accuser's name goes public, his victims are more likely to step forward and get help.
The
U.S. clergy sex abuse crisis erupted in Boston in 2002 after records
revealed church officials kept molestation complaints secret.
O'Malley
was brought in to clean up the matter after Cardinal Bernard Law
resigned.
Lynch, the spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said there
is "no organization in the Commonwealth that has done more (than the
archdiocese) in recent times to educate and empower children, parents
and staff on the terrible and pervasive problem of sexual abuse in our
society."
She said the archdiocese has settled 800 cases since
O'Malley took over in 2003, completed 60,000 background checks on
priests and other church workers who have contact with children and
trained 300,000 children and 175,000 adults to spot and report abusers.
SIC: AP/USA