As Worcester bucks a trend, will US dioceses keep naming names?

 

As Worcester bucks a trend, will US dioceses keep naming names?

WORCESTER (MA)
The Pillar [Washington DC]

February 7, 2023

By Ed. Condon

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A Massachusetts diocese has defended not publishing a list of accused clerics. Do they have a point?

The Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts, issued on Friday an updated report on clerical sexual abuse in the diocese, going back to the 1950s.

In the wake of first the Spotlight scandals of the early 2000s and then the Pennsylvania grand jury report of 2018, reports like these have become common for U.S. dioceses to release, and become an accepted part of both the Church’s reckoning with its past, and the tracking of its progress.

But the Worcester report was different from most — not for what it included, but for what it didn’t.

Unlike other dioceses, Worcester did not include the names of clergy accused of historical acts of abuse, and it does not maintain a public list of “credibly accused” clergy.

Those decisions have drawn criticism for Bishop Robert McManus, who has…