Los Angeles Archdiocese reveals list of 54 clergy accused of abusing children

[Borealis]

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-archdioecese-accused-priest-list-20181206-story.html

For the first time in a decade, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Thursday updated its list of clergy accused of molesting children, addressing renewed outcry about how the Catholic
Church responds to abuse allegations.

“We owe it to the victim-survivors to be fully transparent in listing the names of those who perpetrate this abuse,” Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in a statement in releasing the list of
54 names.

The decision to disclose names of accused clergy has been made by bishops across the United States after the release in August of a Pennsylvania report, which revealed a decades-
long cover-up of child sex abuse involving more than 1,000 victims and hundreds of priests. Dioceses in San Diego, San Jose, Orange County and San Bernardino have also released
names of accused clergy this year.

The L.A. Archdiocese said it stopped adding names to its People of God report after 2008 because parishes and schools were announcing instances of abuse as they were discovered.
In an online Q&A addressing the release, the archdiocese said it chose to update the list now “out of concern for the healing of victim-survivors,” and to encourage those who may
have been abused by these clergy members to come forward.

Victim advocates say that while such disclosures are a step in the right direction, they are largely symbolic, and more needs to be done to address the church’s systemic, decades-long
cloaking of abuse.

The Archdiocese of L.A. said it will now revise the Report of God regularly as allegations are made or substantiated by its oversight board. “It is our hope to not have to update the list
ever again,” said archdiocese spokeswoman Adrian Alarcon.