Mark A. Abramson, a New Hampshire attorney, has gone into court seeking all Catholic clergy personnel and probation files, archives and complaints of sexual abuse made to the Diocese of Manchester. The names of the alleged victims are not being released by Abramson. This, in turn, has led diocesan lawyers to file a motion forcing the release of the names.
Catholic League president William Donohue opined as follows:
“Mark A. Abramson has shown no interest in obtaining the personnel files of ministers, rabbis, imams, teachers, social workers or psychologists. Just priests. His sense of fairness also allows him to oppose due process rights of Roman Catholic priests: they have no right, in his mind, to know the identity of their accuser.
“The Diocese of Manchester ought to release all its priest personnel files to Abramson, but with the names of the priests deleted throughout. For justification, they can cite Abramson’s tactic of withholding the names of priest accusers as being exemplary: what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. This way everyone will be presented with reams of personnel information positively unrelated to any human being.
“For his ‘witch-hunt’ efforts, we are including Mark A. Abramson in our 2002 annual report on anti-Catholicism. Indeed, we are mailing him a box of our 2001 annual reports today so he can get an idea what his entry will look like. Unlike Abramson, the Catholic League likes to name names.”
