Bishop Malone: ‘It was time to put those names out’
Priests accused of sexual misconduct with minors
In an exclusive interview with
"We've been working on this for months. Reviewing old cases and all of that. I have just become more and more convinced it was time to put those names out. The main reasons are really transparency. You've heard of the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. It calls us to transparency. I wanted that transparency to happen," he said. "We know if a sexual abuse victim sees the name in print of the abuser, sometimes that person might have been ashamed and hidden away. Seeing the name in print, acknowledged by the church, can liberate and empower that person to come forward. And we want them to come forward for help."
"I think the tendency decades ago was perhaps like a family. You don't want to hang out the dirty laundry. But clearly there was dirty laundry. I hate to use that metaphor for human beings. But I felt it was time to bring it into the light."
He noted that about 30 Catholic dioceses out of 197 in the
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"The majority have not," he said.
Malone said he could not estimate how many children were molested by diocese priests and he did not know how much the diocese has spent to settle sexual abuse complaints.
"I have no idea what that figure is," he said, when asked about the total diocese funds and insurance funds spent to settle complaints. "The people in my finance office would know that but I do not."
He admitted the church, in the past, made mistakes by allowing some priests who had been accused of sexually abusing children to return to a parish after they had received psychological treatment.
"You know the custom in the past, when an allegation would come decades ago, they would typically send that priest to assessment at some institute that specializes in that. Sometimes the institute would recommend a follow up plan of therapy. Sometimes, and we see now this was a mistake, they would recommend to the bishop, he's OK, you can put him back in the ministry. We would never do that now."
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Malone said the list of 42 priests does not include the names of accused priests who worked in diocese churches and schools, but belonged to religious orders.
"They do not come under my authority. A religious order priest, his authority is the provincial superior, let's say of the Franciscans or
Listen to the interview:
He said diocese officials contacted the living priests on the list on Friday to alert them their names would be included on the list of priests involved in sexual misconduct with a minor.
He said the diocese is not releasing the addresses of the priests on the list.
"We're hoping that just seeing these names that will be widely spread by the media would be enough for people to recognize people in their own community. So and so is living down the street," he said.
Malone was in
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