Maryland’s attorney general released some previously redacted names in its staggering report on child sex abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore on Tuesday, however the names of 5 Catholic church leaders remained redacted amid ongoing appeals, prompting criticism of the church by victims’ advocates.
While the names of the high-ranking church leaders have already got been reported by local media, the director of the Maryland chapter of Survivors of those Abused by Priests said he was dissatisfied, but not surprised that resistance continues to fight against transparency and accountability, despite what church leaders say.
“Once again, it just shows that the Church isn’t doing what they are saying they’re doing,” said David Lorenz, the leader of SNAP’s Maryland chapter. “They’re just not. They’re not being open and transparent, they usually must be, they usually claim to be.”
Lorenz said he questioned whether the names within the report would ever be made public.
“I don’t have a ton of confidence, since the church is amazingly powerful and intensely wealthy they usually are paying for the lawyers for these officials,” Lorenz said. “We know that. They are paying the lawyers of the officials whose names are still being redacted.”
The Maryland Attorney General’s Office said in an announcement last month that the five officials whose names remain redacted “had extensive participation within the Archdiocese’s handling of abuser clergy and reports of kid abuse.”
“The court’s order enables my office to proceed to lift the veil of secrecy over a long time of horrifying abuse suffered by the survivors,” Attorney General Anthony Brown said on the time.
The names of eight alleged abusers that had been redacted were publicized in https://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/reports/AOB_Report_Revised_Redacted_Interim.pdf released Tuesday.
Brown’s office said appeals are ongoing referring to further disclosure of redacted names and the agency could release a fair less redacted version of the report later.
The names were initially redacted partly because they were obtained through grand jury proceedings, that are confidential under Maryland law with no judge’s order.
Many of probably the most notable names were previously reported by local media within the weeks following the report’s initial release in April.
Those accused of perpetuating the coverup include Auxiliary Bishop W. Francis Malooly, in response to The Baltimore Sun. Malooly later rose to turn into bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington, which covers all of Delaware and parts of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He retired in 2021.
Another high-ranking official, Richard Woy, currently serves as pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in a suburb west of Baltimore. He received complaints about certainly one of the report’s most infamous alleged abusers, Father Joseph Maskell, who was the topic of a 2017 Netflix series “The Keepers.”
A spokesman for the archdiocese didn’t immediately return an email looking for comment.
In April, the attorney general first released its 456-page investigation with redactions that details 156 clergy, teachers, seminarians and deacons throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore who allegedly assaulted greater than 600 children going back to the Nineteen Forties. Many of them at the moment are dead.
The release of the largely unredacted report comes just days before a latest state law goes into effect Oct. 1, removing the statute of limitations on child sex abuse charges and allowing victims to sue their abusers a long time after the very fact.
