Baltimore Archdiocese Posts List of 71 Priests Accused of Sexually Abusing Children

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has posted a list of several dozen priests and religious brothers accused of sexual abuse, including 14 priests who offended after the groundbreaking 2002 Boston Globe investigation broke the story of widespread sexual abuse.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the list includes 57 priests who were first named on the archdiocese website in 2002—eight months after the Globe investigation. That list was subsequently taken down. The new list contains at least 14 names that did not appear on the initial list because their offenses occurred after 2002.

When the 2002 list was published, Cardinal William Keeler called the abuse of children by priests “the spiritual equivalent of murder.”

Though all of the names had previously been disclosed, they had not been collected into a single place, as activists had requested. The new list was posted this past January, although the archdiocese did not publicize it because it did not include any “new” names, so-to-speak.

“We’ve wanted it a long time,” David Lorenz, Maryland director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told the Sun. “We’ve asked every diocese around the country to do it.” Archbishop William Lori decided to grant that request this year.

“The primary motivation in publicly disclosing an allegation is to encourage anyone else who may have been a victim of that individual to come forward,” archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine told the Washington Post. “We’ve heard from victim-surviors that one main obstacle is the sense that they’re alone. They’re the only one. They won’t be believed.”

The list includes a paragraph describing the allegations in a scroll-over text appended to each name.

“I think it’s to Lori’s credit,” Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, said. “Baltimore’s unusual in actually saying something about what the allegations are.”

“There are various ways in which the Church has over the years really limited everyone’s knowledge of this, and survivors are very, very aware of that. And when the Church finally says, okay, we’re not doing that anymore, that is a huge relief. It really lifts a terrible burden.”