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24 LA Catholic clergy accused of sex abuse named in document (PDF)
Cardinal Roger Mahony (L) walks with his successor, San Antonio, Texas Archbishop Jose Gomez (2nd L), after a news conference at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on April 6, 2010 in Los Angeles.
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The website BishopAccountability.org issued a press release Wednesday pointing out that the names of 24 clergy who had not previously been publicly accused of abuse were included in a document released on the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese's website on Jan. 31.
The list is dated October 2008; you can read it at the end of this article. It was released at the same time as the recent release of priest abuse files and Archibishop Jose Gomez's statement about those files, according to BishopAccountability.org.
RELATED: The priest sex abuse scandal: A guide to news, documents, resources and issues
There are 49 total names listed in the document.
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The release of so many new names of accused clergy is "an extremely unusual development," according to BishopAccountability.org's Terence McKiernan, as most lists usually include names previously made public by victims, reporters or prosecutors.
“Why has the public not known of these allegations until now?” McKiernan said in the release.
The organization announced it wrote to Gomez asking him to provide further information, including the number of allegations against each clergy member, the timeframe of the alleged abuse and the history of where those clergy were assigned.
“Archbishop Gomez said in his letter about the files, ‘I cannot undo the failings of the past.’ But he can document those failings," McKiernan said.
Final Addendum to the Report to the People of God
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