A law firm suing California bishops for the records of priests accused of sexual abuse has compiled a report of 212 clergy in the San Francisco Bay Area it says are accused of misconduct.
Attorney Jeff Anderson said Tuesday that his firm compiled the list from lawsuits and public websites to publicize the breadth of the problem. He wants more transparency from the Roman Catholic Church.
The reports includes information already available to the public from various sources, according to the firm. The firm gathered information from bishop-accountablilty.org, public statements of the Dioceses, and other sources.
"All individuals should be considered innocent until proven guilty," said the firm. But in some cases, the statue of limitations has expired and some of the people on the list are deceased.
View the full report here or below:
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Last week, San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath released the names of 15 priests found to have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children within the diocese. But Anderson says he has 33 on his list, which means the San Jose diocese is under-counting.
The 18 other names on the firm's list of San Jose Diocese were: Edward F. Beutner, Edward Thomas Burke, Charles Leonard Conner, Raymaond A. Devlin, Milton Eggerling, Hal Ellis, William C. Farrington, John J. Gallen, James F. Kuntz, Jerold W. Lindner, Joseph Mikulich, James T. Monaghan, John Rodrigues Moniz, Stephen J Muth, William J. Scanlan, Stephen Emmett, Carlton E. Whitten and Paul R. Valdez.
Churches, Schools and Religious Centers with Links to Publicly Accused Priests
This map includes names released by the San Jose Diocese, names of priests who have been identified by Bishop Accountability and names of priests identified in lawsuits. Note: This map will be updated as more information is released.
Source: San Jose Diocese, Bishop Accountability
Credit: Sean Myers/NBC Bay Area
San Jose Diocese spokesperson Liz Sullivan said the Diocese is reviewing the names on the list and will release a statement Wednesday.
The report also lists 135 accused in the Archdiocese of San Francisco and 95 accused in the Diocese of Oakland.
The Diocese of Oakland said it will release its own list around Thanksgiving, but the Diocese of San Francisco has yet to commit to any such action.
Anderson's firm first said the number of accused clergy was 263. But some of the accused clergy worked at more than one diocese so they were double-counted.
