BALTIMORE — An unredacted report on child sex abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore was released by Attorney General Anthony Brown, Tuesday afternoon.
This comes after a Baltimore judge ordered most names to be revealed last month.
The original 456-page report was released in April and included 146 names of priests and other clergy members.
Ten names were redacted from that report. This revised version reveals eight more names with two names still redacted.
The newly released names are Father Joseph Fiorentino, Sister Catherine Hasson, Thomas Hudson, Father John Krzyzanski, Father Sam Lupico, Brother Ronald Nicholls, Father Joseph O’Meara and Michael Scriber.
Brown noted Tuesday that "accusations of wrongdoing described in this Report do not constitute findings of guilt."
RELATED: Judge orders most names in Archdiocese sexual abuse report to be revealed
Reports of abuse spanned over eight decades, impacting over 600 victims.
"By order of the Circuit Court, some information in today’s revised interim release remains redacted while certain individuals named in the report appeal the Court’s August 2023 ruling authorizing the disclosure of their identities. Those appeals are ongoing. Depending on the outcome of those appeals, the Office may release a further version of the report at a later time," Brown said.
The Archdiocese also released a statement.
“Since the start of the investigation by the Maryland Office of Attorney General into child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and throughout the entirety of the ensuing legal process, the Archdiocese offered its full cooperation and support. At the same time, we believed that those named in the report had a right to be heard as a fundamental matter of fairness.
In today’s culture where hasty and errant conclusions are sometimes quickly formed, the mere inclusion of one’s name in a report such as this can wrongly and forever equate anyone named, no matter how innocuously, with those who committed the evilest acts. In the recent opinion released by the Circuit Court for Baltimore City (August 2023), the court stated, “The fact that an individual’s name was redacted was a function of Maryland law regarding grand jury documents; it was in no way a finding by the court that any of these people engaged in any improper conduct.” The court also stated, “While the anger and pain of the victims and their families is entirely justified, an undifferentiated fury aimed at the Church and all of the people in the Report is not. Some of the people in the Report were simply making difficult decisions under difficult circumstances.” The Archdiocese will continue to respect the legal process and the decisions of courts that ultimately make legal determinations in these matters.
The Archdiocese has not opposed the release of the Attorney General’s report, just as it has continued its long-standing policy of publishing credible allegations of child sexual abuse involving its personnel.
No one credibly accused of harming a child is in Catholic ministry today. The Church’s longtime zero-tolerance policy continues to forever bar from all ministry anyone who would harm a child.
We recognize that the updated report is another reminder of a sad and deeply painful history tied to the tremendous harm caused to innocent children and young people by some ministers of the Church. We ask all to join us in praying for all victim-survivors of abuse and for all who have been affected by the scourge of child sexual abuse.”
The latest full version of this report can be read here.
