PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Clergy sex-abuse victims and their supporters said Tuesday that Rhode Island’s Roman Catholic bishop is not doing enough to protect children from pedophile priests even as he’s taken on Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy for his stance on abortion rights.
A small group of protesters gathered outside Bishop Thomas Tobin’s office in Providence two days after news broke that the bishop had asked Kennedy in 2007 not to take Holy Communion because he supports abortion rights.
“He claims that it’s important that we protect the unborn. But it’s equally as important to protect those who have been born and those young children who have been raped and sodomized by clerics and priests. But yet he seems to protect those clerics,” said Ruth Moore of Hull, Mass.
The group called on Tobin to publish the names of priests from the diocese who have been convicted of or admitted to molesting children, or if a thorough investigation has turned up credible evidence of child molestation, even if no conviction resulted.
The diocese has said in court papers that 125 of its priests have been accused of molesting children. While many of their names are known from lawsuits and news accounts, others have never been released.
Mike Guilfoyle, a spokesman for the diocese, said some of those allegations were recanted, found to be false, or made after a priest has died, so he cannot defend himself.
