BALTIMORE — Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said his office on Monday sent a judge the proposed redactions for its report on Catholic clergy sexual abuse, meeting the deadline to do so.
The redacted names, which many number more than 200, include individuals who are living, are accused of abuse, or hiding, enabling, assisting in the cover-up of abuse, or protecting abusers from the consequences of their actions, and whose identities were revealed as a result of a grand-jury subpoena, according to a statement from Brown.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert K. Taylor will review the proposed redactions before he gives his approval to make the report public, according to his Feb. 24 order. It is not clear how long Taylor will need to review the report before he gives the OK to release it.
The report, titled “Clergy Abuse in Maryland,” is 456 pages and reveals the extent of child sexual abuse and the subsequent cover-up within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore. The product of a four-year investigation, the report relies on diocesan documents the attorney general’s office obtained by way of a grand jury. Grand jury proceedings, and the information obtained from them, are secret by law, and a judge’s permission is needed for public disclosure.
Brown also said after receiving Taylor’s signoff that his office would post the report on its website.
There is the possibility a less-redacted version of the report is released in the future. In his written ruling, Taylor said he would give those named in the report a chance to come forward and explain to him why they should not be publicly revealed. Any such proceedings would be confidential.
Archbishop William E. Lori has said he does not oppose the report’s release and that the Catholic Church would continue to cooperate with the attorney general’s office and the courts. The archdiocese also, however, paid the legal costs for an anonymous group of people named in the report but not accused of abuse who sought to keep all court proceedings in the matter secret.
The archdiocese has more than half a million Catholics and operates parishes, schools and other institutions in Baltimore City and nine counties across Central and Western Maryland.
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