Family's Lawsuit Seeks Disclosure of List of Sex Abusers Among Catholic Clergy
by Allie Martin
August 9, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The Roman Catholic Church is being sued by the family of a man believed to have been murdered by a pedophile priest. The lawsuit asks the church to disclose the names of all of its U.S. clergy members accused of sexual abuse.The suit was filed by the family of Daniel O'Connell, who was shot to death in February 2002 at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home in Hudson, Wisconsin, along with an employee, James Ellison. A judge ruled last October that there was probable cause that Rev. Ryan Erickson shot the two men out of fear O'Connell was about to expose his past sexual abuse. Prosecutor Eric Johnson said evidence suggested O'Connell learned that the priest was sexually abusing someone and was providing alcohol to minors, or both.
Erickson, 31, hanged himself at his church in December 2004, just days after police questioned him in the slayings.
David Clohessy is director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. Clohessy says the public has a right to know the whereabouts of dangerous clergy members.
"Child molesters -- unlike carjackers, for example, or pickpockets -- they don't naturally, over time or with age, grow out of this kind of behavior," the SNAP director explains. "And that's why we need to know who these men are." Without that knowledge, he says, "then we can't warn their neighbors, and we can't protect children from them."
Clohessy does not deny the Catholic Church leadership has taken appropriate actions thus far; but they need to do more, he says.
"While church officials have taken a few minimal steps towards reform -- and while they've acknowledged that, yes, indeed, priests do molest and yes, indeed, bishops have covered it up -- they haven't taken the single most effective step," he states. "And that is to release the names of the known offenders who are still priests and who are former priests all across the country."
The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, names nearly 200 U.S. Catholic bishops and other church officials as defendants. The complaint states that the bishops and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops "have established a policy of harboring and protecting suspected child molesting agents, thereby endangering numerous children throughout the United States."
Commenting about the lawsuit in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, O'Connell's father, Tom O'Connell, Sr., says he and his family merely "want to continue what Dan started. We want to protect children."
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
