WATCH: 263 Priests Named as Pedophiles in Alleged San Francisco Victim’s Report
Jeff Anderson, attorney for a victim of child abuse at the hands of California Catholic clergy members has released the names of 263 alleged pedophile priests, bishops, and church leaders of three San Francisco Bay area dioceses this week during a press conference.
Prominent church officials are accused of engaging in an “institutional cover-up of an enormous magnitude” in a damning report that lists 263 local priests deemed sexual predators.
“The bishops made a conscious choice to protect those offenders, but they also made a conscious choice to protect themselves and officials complicit in their crimes,” said Anderson.
An appalling 66-page report was compiled by the law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates of St. Paul, Minnesota, who represents alleged abuse survivor Tom Emens, who says he was sexually abused by a priest as a young boy. The report covers clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Diocese of San Jose, and Diocese of Oakland and contains background information, photographs and assignment histories on 263 clergy accused of sexual misconduct.
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NBC News reports Anderson having sued all 11 dioceses in California on behalf of Tom Emens, 50, who said he was 10 years old when he was repeatedly molested by a priest who died in 2002.
Emens claimed the priests in the report were just the tip of the iceberg, “What happened to me should not happen to any child,” he said.
Earlier this month, Anderson released a separate 120-page report on clerical sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that included the names over more than 300 alleged clerical offenders.
Anderson said during a news conference on Tuesday that the new names were collected from publicly available documents, adding that he believed the bishops knew the names of other sexually abusive priests but “they have not told the public about, that they have not told the public about.”There is a culture of secrecy, and every single bishop in California has made a conscious choice to keep the names that they know to be criminals, who are sexual predators,” he said.
The report is billed as a “chronology and analysis of the rampant sexual abuse of children with the Bay Area including a discussion of how the highest Church officials enabled the abusers and covered up their crimes.”
“Perhaps most shocking among the discoveries is that some perpetrators were intentionally transferred and retained in trusted positions with direct access to children even when they were known to be abusers,” it says.
Spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Mike Brown, cast doubt on the report, saying in an interview that “we can’t tell how it was put together or from what sources or the criteria that were used.”
“These are very important points,” he said, adding that Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has been “spending a lot of time out in parishes talking to people” and that “he’ll be making decisions very soon about how the archdiocese will publicly address this information.”
Spokeswoman for the Diocese of Oakland, Helen Osman, referred a reporter to a statement previously released by the diocese announcing that it is reviewing its files and plans to release its own list of credibly accused clergy after Thanksgiving.
“We are not going to divert our resources from this work to respond to Mr. Anderson’s list,” Osman stated.
The Diocese of San Jose released a statement Tuesday saying they are reviewing the names on the list and will make a full comment on Wednesday.
“It is heart-breaking to see the list of so many who have betrayed and abused innocent children in these horrific ways in the list released today by Anderson & Associates,” the statement said. “Diocese of San Jose remains resolute in our commitment to provide healing and reconciliation for the victims/survivors. This will allow us to begin the process of restoring trust that has been painfully eroded by those in positions of leadership and trust by being accountable and transparent for what has happened in the past within the Diocese of San Jose.”
The California Catholic Conference said that none of the information Anderson filed in the suit earlier this month, and that nothing in the suit “describes the positive steps taken by California diocese over the past 15 years to protect children and young people from abuse.”
Emens has called on Bishop Michael Barber of Oakland, Cordileone of San Francisco, and Bishop Joseph McGrath to release the names of all clergymen who have been accused of sexual misconduct in their diocese to date.
Corileone has been an outspoken supporter of the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who caused a stir in August when he released an 11-page letter claiming that Pope Francis knew about sex abuse allegations against the disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., but failed to disclose what he knew right away.
At the time, Francis told reporters that he had read Viganò’s statement, and although he wouldn’t comment any further on it, he did say that the text “speaks for itself.”
The report comes in the wake of a scathing Pennsylvania grand jury report that includes 250,000 pages worth of internal documents from six Catholic diocese in the state. According to the report, more than 300 “predator priests” have been accused of the sexual abuse of over 1,000 child victims over a period of 70 years.
HORROR: Grand Jury Reveals Heinous Abuse of 1000s of Children by 300+ Catholic Priests
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