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UPDATE: Diocese of Harrisburg releases names of 71 clergy members accused of sexual abuse, cites bishops' failure

The Sentinel - 8/1/2018

Aug. 01--The Diocese of Harrisburg released a list Wednesday morning of clergy members who have been accused of child sexual abuse, based on the diocese's own historical records.

The document's release comes ahead of the anticipated disclosure next week of a grand jury report detailing sexual misconduct in six of Pennsylvania's Catholic dioceses, resulting from a yearslong investigation by the state attorney general.

Bishop Ronald Gainer issued a public apology Wednesday for the abuse and said the church's bishops shared the blame, having responded inadequately to all the allegations.

The Diocese of Harrisburg covers 15 counties in the region: Adams, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Mifflin, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Snyder, Union and York. It also includes seven high schools -- Bishop McDevitt High School, Delone Catholic High School, Lancaster Catholic High School, Lebanon Catholic High School, Our Lady of Lourdes Regional High School, Trinity High School and York Catholic High School.

The Diocese of Harrisburg's internal list was planned to be released in late 2016, according to Gainer, but the diocese was asked to "stand down" from release due to the state's ongoing investigation.

With that investigation having wrapped up at the end of April, the diocese decided to issue its list, according to Matt Haverstick, an attorney for the diocese.

Haverstick said the list is not intended to infer guilt, but is simply a list of the church's available historical record on abuse accusations.

"These are individuals against whom an allegation was made and that allegation was not disproven by law enforcement," Haverstick said. "We may never know if these individuals did anything wrong, and we don't purport to know if these individuals did anything wrong."

Many on the list are "already known," Haverstick said, with accusations having come out in court actions and media reports stretching back decades. Many of the clergy members on the list are deceased.

Many of the records are incomplete, and the church's internal investigations from decades ago were not conducted in a proper manner, Haverstick said.

"That's one of the reasons we went with the standard of accusation instead of guilt," Haverstick said. "The records are incomplete and the investigations 40 years ago weren't done in the way we would have liked."

No clergy were removed from ministry as a result of the list's release, Haverstick said.

Haverstick said he did not know the exact date of the last time a clergy member from the Diocese of Harrisburg was removed due to sexual abuse, but said that "it has been some time."

Gainer said the diocese is in the process of removing the name of any clergy member on the list from any building, room, program, or other title of honor.

The diocese will also remove the name of every bishop since 1947 -- the starting date of the state's abuse investigation timeline -- from church facilities, citing need for the church's leadership to take greater responsibility for abuse that occurred under their watch.

"This decision may prove to be controversial, but as a bishop I strongly believe leaders of the diocese must hold themselves to a higher standard and must yield honorary symbols as a matter of healing," Gainer said.

Additionally, the diocese announced that it would relinquish rights to any nondisclosure agreements signed as part of legal settlements between the diocese and abuse victims.

Confidentiality agreements were being put in place prior to 2002, Gainer said.

"Accordingly, on behalf of the diocese, I waive any remaining confidentiality rights the diocese has in those confidentiality provisions, while retaining all other rights the diocese has," Gainer said. "I take this step about confidentiality so that the survivors can be free to tell their stories whenever and to whomever they wish."

11:33 p.m.: Posted earlier on Cumberlink:

The Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General issued the following statement following Wednesday's news conference:

"It is long past due for the Diocese of Harrisburg to make public the names of predator priests within the Catholic Church," said Joe Grace, spokesman for Attorney General Shapiro. "Their proclamations today only come after intense public pressure and in the face of the imminent release of the Grand Jury report exposing decades of child abuse and cover up."

"Per last week's Supreme Court Order, this month the Office of Attorney General will publish an honest and comprehensive accounting of widespread sexual abuse by more than 300 priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses."

"To this point, the Diocese of Harrisburg has been adverse to transparency and has not been cooperative. A now public opinion by the judge supervising the Grand Jury last year made it clear they sought to end the investigation entirely."

"The true test of the Diocese's commitment to victims of abuse and reforms within the Church will be their actions following the release of the report. Attorney General Shapiro has consistently called for the elimination of the criminal statute of limitations and reforms to the civil statute to give all victims the opportunity to obtain justice in a court of law."

10:41 a.m.: Posted earlier on Cumberlink:

The Diocese of Harrisburg released a list of 71 clergy members who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of children during a news conference Wednesday morning in Harrisburg.

The news conference featured Bishop Ronald Gainer regarding the child sex abuse investigation in the Roman Catholic Church in advance of the scheduled release of a grand jury report into child sexual abuse allegations within the church, which identifies more than 300 "predator priests" from six Pennsylvania dioceses -- Harrisburg, Erie, Scranton, Allentown, Pittsburgh and Greensburg.

According to WITF, allegations date as far back as the 1940s, and more than half of those on the list are currently deceased.

Check back to Cumberlink.com as more information becomes available.

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