ERIE — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie on Friday published a list of 34 priests and 17 lay people who it says were credibly accused of sexual abuse or other offenses involving minors over the past three-quarters of a century — including a deceased bishop who failed to stop sexual abuse once it was reported to him.
While a minority of Catholic dioceses around the country have released similar lists of accused priests, this one is unusual in listing lay people as well.
Bishop Lawrence Persico released the list, and updated the diocese’s policies on preventing and responding to sexual abuse, in advance of an expected state grand jury report later this year on sexual abuse in Erie and five other Catholic dioceses.
Twenty-one of the priests on the list are now deceased. They include one of Bishop Persico’s predecessors, Bishop Alfred M. Watson, who was auxiliary bishop in Erie from 1965 to 1969 and then bishop from 1969 to 1980. Bishop Watson died in 1990.
The diocese did not say Bishop Watson was himself accused of abuse, but it said without elaboration that he “failed to act to stop abuse which was credibly reported to him.”
Most of the living people on the list were not criminally charged but faced credible allegations that would prevent them from working or volunteering in the diocese, it said. Some live in the region and others are out of state.
Bishop Persico said that in complying with a subpoena from the grand jury for any documents related to sexual abuse, diocesan officials closely reviewed the files, using the “opportunity to intensify the efforts we had begun making to gain a fuller understanding of our past.”
“In publishing the list of those who have credible allegations against them, the first goal is to protect children. It is not possible for us to monitor all the people on the list. This is an important step in helping the public become aware of information that is important for the community’s well-being.”
He added: “Some are concerned that publicizing these names will open old wounds. Very importantly, we are actually publishing the names in the hope of helping the victims/survivors move one step closer to healing those same wounds. It is important they know they are not alone.”
The diocese said in a statement that “every person named on this list was credibly accused of actions that, in the diocese’s judgment, disqualify that person from working with children. Such actions could include the use of child pornography, furnishing pornography to minors, corruption of minors, violating a child-protection policy, failure to prevent abuse that they knew to be happening, and — in some cases — direct physical sexual abuse or sexual assault of minors.”
Many of the cases never led to criminal charges, the diocese said. Because the allegations involving the large number of people could not be immediately corroborated, the Post-Gazette is not reproducing the full list here.
Those named include some who have previously been named publicly and others who have not.
The list includes current priests, who are now forbidden from any ministry, and those who have left the priesthood. It includes religious-order priests as well as diocesan priests.
The lay people include former teachers, coaches and volunteers. Among them are the late William P. Garvey, the former longtime president of Mercyhurst University in Erie, who retired in 2005 after he was publicly accused of sexually and physically abusing minor boys in the 1960s and 1970s, while he was grade-school boys basketball coach for the school at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Erie.
The Diocese of Erie includes about 200,000 Catholics in 13 northwestern Pennsylvania counties.
In 2016, a statewide grand jury report lambasted the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown for what it called a pattern of covering up the sexual abuse of hundreds of minors by more than 50 priests and others associated with the church, mostly in the last half of the 20th century.
That investigation, steered by the state attorney general’s office, was followed by the current, broader investigation of the dioceses of Erie, Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Scranton, Allentown and Harrisburg.
Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik said Friday he did not plan to post a list of alleged abusers on his diocese’s website.
“I think there are a number of ways of accomplishing the same thing,” he said. “Our No. 1 concern has to be for the victims.”
Whenever a priest is accused, “we always have turned over the names to civil authorities, to the district attorney in the county where the abuse is alleged to have happened,” he said.
The diocese also tells parishioners of a parish served by the priest why he is being removed pending investigation, and it informs people in his current and former assignment settings as well, asking anyone with information about abuse to come forward.
And the diocese complied with the current grand jury subpoena for records dating back to 1947, Bishop Zubik said.
“i think we're doing exactly what we need to do and I don't see any need to change our procedures,” he said.
The Erie diocese, in addition, released revisions to its policy on abuse, giving more specific definitions to terms and centralizing investigations under its Office for the Protection of Children and Youth.
Peter Smith: petersmith@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416; Twitter @PG_PeterSmith. The Associated Press contributed.
First Published: April 6, 2018, 10:27 p.m.
Updated: April 7, 2018, 12:50 p.m.
