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Don’t blame archdiocese for problems with release of AG report | READER COMMENTARY

For The Baltimore Sun
Jean Hargadon Wehner (center) is comforted by her brother Ed K Hargadon and sister-in-law Val Kuciauskas after speaking at a news conference by abuse survivors and advocates who are part of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. SNAP is demanding that the Baltimore archdiocese support public release of Attorney General’s report detailing 80 years of sexual abuse. File. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun).

Jean Hargadon Wehner (center) is comforted by her brother Ed K Hargadon and sister-in-law Val Kuciauskas after speaking at a news conference by abuse survivors and advocates who are part of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. SNAP is demanding that the Baltimore archdiocese support public release of Attorney General’s report detailing 80 years of sexual abuse. File. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun). (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun)

The Baltimore Sun editorial board certainly climbed on its moral high horse in accusing the Baltimore Archdiocese of ”hypocrisy” with respect to Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh’s report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Maryland (”Baltimore Archdiocese can’t claim transparency on abuse while reportedly underwriting efforts to keep AG report secret,” Nov. 30).

But, to use newspaper lingo, you may have buried the lede.

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The holdup to the report being made public is the objection of those named in the report who, first, were not charged as sex abusers and, second, who were never interviewed by the Attorney General’s Office, which is quite happy to publish their names without any consultation.

You do concede that these individuals deserve to be heard. Perhaps the Attorney General’s Office would consider deleting their names or at least speaking to them. The failure to do so is truly problematic.

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In the alternative, a court could excise their names or at least give them the opportunity to object.

The Church has a lot to answer for but, in this case, I think the Attorney General’s office has created a situation where there can be no winners.

— Joseph A. “Jay” Schwartz III, Towson

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