© 2025 New England Public Media

FCC public inspection files:
WGBYWFCRWNNZWNNUWNNZ-FMWNNI

For assistance accessing our public files, please contact hello@nepm.org or call 413-781-2801.
PBS, NPR and local perspective for western Mass.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New Bishop Directs Springfield Diocese To Expand List Of Clergy Credibly Accused Of Abuse

 The office of the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Springfield, Massachusetts, in a file photo.
Nancy Eve Cohen
/
NEPR
The office of the bishop of the Springfield Catholic Diocese.

The Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese said it will expand which clergy accused of sexual abuse it lists on its website.

Up until now, the diocese published only the names of clergy it considered credibly accused when they were alive — with one exception, the late Bishop Christopher Weldon.

Early in 2021, the diocese said, the list will include clergy accused after they died. 

Olan Horne from Chester, a survivor of clergy abuse, said if the diocese releases those names, it could validate the experiences of some victims. For others, it could start a conversation.

"'Johnny, you were always with Father so-and-so. I saw his name in the paper.' That conversation may happen," explained Horne. "So it's not just validation, it's truth. There's power in all of those conversations. And it may be, 'He did nothing, Mom.' So then there's safety. There's a lot that can come from that."

This change comes at the direction of the incoming bishop, William Byrne, whose official first day on the job is Monday.

"It's an absolute necessity to be able to provide people with the information that they need so that we can begin to bring healing — most importantly, to the victims," Byrne said in an interview with NEPM

The diocese said it will contact survivors before posting the names of their abusers.

Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.
Related Content