Victims & advocates to Boston's Cardinal: "Stay home"

They release minutes of chancery meeting showing concern “for PR over safety”

And church child sex investigation process need "a total revamping," groups say

O'Malley soon heads to Ireland; groups want him to "stay put & protect Boston kids"

They also push him to honor his pledge, made 20 months ago, to post predators' names

Obscure, internal documents show Cardinal will release just 155 names instead of 200+

WHAT
Holding signs, charts and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and advocates will
--- disclose internal archdiocesan meeting minutes that show church officials “fixating on public relations rather than public safety” when discussing the release names of predator priests, and
--- harshly criticize the way Boston’s Catholic cardinal has handled five child sex cases in recent years.

They will urge the Cardinal to
-- postpone his trip to Ireland until he fulfills his promise, made 20 months ago, to disclose and post names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics,
-- release ALL of the predators’ names NOW (not the 155 he’s apparently planning to release later), and
-- drastically reform the way abuse reports are investigated by the archdiocese.

WHEN
Thursday, Nov. 11, at 10:30 a.m.

WHERE
Outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, 1400 Washington Street , in Boston’s South End

WHO
Members of two groups - BishopAccountability.org and SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including SNAP’s executive director from Missouri

WHY
In March 2009, Cardinal Sean O’Malley promised to release a list of credibly accused predator priests. He still hasn’t done so. But internal minutes of a March 2010 meeting attended by top archdiocesan staff show O’Malley plans to disclose only 155 names. That’s far short of the 237 alleged abusers that Attorney General Thomas Reilly cited in 2003 and even fewer than the 191 priests the archdiocese acknowledged in a 2000confidential report.

And minutes from archdiocesan meetings show a preoccupation by top church staff with public relations with little or no mention of public safety or child protection. (Copies of the minutes will be provided)

For the safety of children, BishopAccountability.org and SNAP want the full list of names disclosed now.

Twice in recent weeks, controversy has surrounded accused predator priests from Boston. In one case, a twice-accused priest has been restored to parish ministry, even though one of his accusers was not allowed to testify before the church’s abuse panel. And in another case, a priest declared innocent by the archdiocese in 2007, despite two earlier abuse reports, had to be removed from a parish again after a third victim came forward.

SNAP and BishopAccountability.org say these facts prove that the archdiocesan abuse practices need a complete overhaul.

“The two recent cases are consistent with O’Malley’s pattern of recklessly disregarding a large percentage of allegations and reinstating priests despite troubling evidence,” said Ann Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org

O’Malley refuses to admit or disclose the names of accused priests even in the parishes that have been most hurt. This weekend, he will be at St. Patrick's parish in Stoneham and said a special mass there last Sunday. No parish in the country has had more publicly accused predator priests than St. Patrick's. (There are eight of them: Richard T. Coughlin, John J. White, Paul R. Shanley, Ernest Justin Hill, James Porter, Daniel Graham, Paul J. Moriarty, and Jon C. Martin.) But there's no one admission of this anywhere – on the archdiocesan website, St. Pat's web site or in any written or verbal comments by O’Malley.

In 2006, O'Malley visited St. Pat's but he never named even one abuser who had worked there.

Soon O’Malley is slated to travel to Ireland to work with bishops there about the growing clergy abuse crisis in that nation. BishopAccountability.org and SNAP want O’Malley to stay put until he releases the names of Boston area predator priests.

CONTACT
Anne Barrett Doyle, BishopAccountability.org, 781 439 5208, David Clohessy, SNAP, 314 566 9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Terence McKiernan, BishopAccountability.org, 508 479 9304