Joel Bissell | MLive.com

LANSING, MI — The Catholic Diocese of Lansing has published a list of priests church leaders say have been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors since the diocese was founded in 1937.

Church officials published the list on the diocesan website Friday morning, Sept. 27, and met with reporters soon after at a press conference to discuss the development and answer questions.

Here’s everything you need to know about this breaking story:

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Joel Bissell | MLive.com

17 credibly-accused priests, 73 alleged victims

At 9 a.m. Friday, diocese officials published the list on the diocesan website, dioceseoflansing.org, along with a press release explaining the list, what it means and how it came to be.

The list includes the names of 17 priests, all of whom are dead or no longer in active ministry. They had assignments throughout the state, including in Lansing, Kalamazoo, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint, Bay City and elsewhere.

In total, the “credibly-accused” priests are alleged to have abused 73 boys and girls.

Bishop of Lansing Earl Boyea said sometimes the abuse occurred on church property and sometimes abuse happened in the survivors' homes.

See the complete list of names here.

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Joel Bissell | MLive.com

Bishop expresses 'deep shame and sorrow'

Boyea addressed the matter and offered his apologies in a statement Friday.

“The primary intended audience of this list are victims of abuse: to encourage presently unknown victims to come forward; to help victims expose their abusers; and to assist victims in finding healing — it is also hoped that this information will assist all to ensure that such abuse never happens again,” Boyea's statement read.

“I know I am not alone in feeling deep shame and sorrow upon learning of the plight of victims in recent years. I have met with many of them; all deserve our compassion, solace and support,” his statement continued.

“As a Church, we are deeply sorry for what happened to you. As your bishop, I offer you a profound apology for the sins of my brothers. As a diocese, we are pledged to help you find healing and peace.”

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Church leaders meet with reporters

About an hour after publishing the names, the Catholic Diocese of Lansing hosted a press conference attended by Boyea, Will Bloomfield, general counsel to the Diocese of Lansing, and Eileen Craig, a survivor of sexual abuse who now counsels fellow victims through the Grief to Grace program.

“I want to know if there is anyone else out there who has been abused and for them to come forward,” Boyea told reporters during the press conference.

“The saddest thing about clergy abuse of minors is that it’s a spiritual attack. It’s not just physical, emotional, sexual, it is a spiritual attack. I mean, what worse damage can you do to someone than that, to attack their souls?”

Related: Lansing Diocese hopes disclosure of predatory priests will prompt more reports of abuse

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Joel Bissell | MLive.com

What is a "credible allegation?"

The diocese said for purposes of this list, the term "credible allegation" means that diocesan officials have determined, that regarding an allegation of clerical sexual abuse of a minor made to the diocese, one or more of the following existed:

• With the assistance of the expert Diocesan Review Board, the Bishop of Lansing determined that the allegation was credible, i.e., that the allegation appeared to be true.

• The accused admitted the allegation;

• The allegation resulted in a criminal conviction;

• The allegation resulted in the accused’s removal from ministry or laicization; or

• The allegation resulted in a civil settlement with either the accused or the diocese.

Bloomfield discussed these criteria with reporters during the press conference.

The diocese said, in total, it received 155 claims of sexual abuse of minors allegedly committed by 69 priests, but found only 73 of those claims appeared to be true.

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Watch a clip of the press conference above.

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Will there be more criminal charges?

Bloomfield, who was an assistant attorney general until January and is now the diocese's general counsel, said it’s up to Michigan's Attorney General Dana Nessel to determine whether criminal charges will stem from the diocese’s findings.

Several of the priests named Friday were also charged with crimes earlier this year.

Bloomfield said Nessel was notified of the alleged incidents, most of which occurred between the 1960s and 1990s. Bloomfield said the diocese has received only one report since 2002, which it deemed not to be credible.

“We don’t think we’re revealing anything that the Attorney General’s office doesn’t know about,” Bloomfield said.

He said the diocese aims to be proactive and is forwarding any new information it receives to the Attorney General.

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Jake May | MLive.com file

AG’s statewide investigation

Alleged sexual abuse within the Catholic Diocese of Lansing and Michigan’s six other Catholic dioceses dating back to 1950 is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.

In September 2018, then-Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette revealed his office was investigating allegations of Roman Catholic clergy sexual abuse spanning more than a half-century in all seven Michigan dioceses. Several dioceses in Michigan — including Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Gaylord and Saginaw — have issued statements or taken actions to address the crisis.

During a press conference in February, Nessel affirmed she would continue the investigation her predecessor started. At that point, her office had received more than 300 tips of alleged sexual misconduct in the state's seven Catholic dioceses since the investigation began and she estimated upwards of 1,000 sex-abuse victims could be uncovered.

Related: 5 Michigan priests charged with 21 counts of criminal sexual abuse

Then in May, Nessel announced criminal sexual conduct charges against five men who were priests in Michigan. By then, more tips had come in and members of the Attorney General's clergy abuse investigative team were working to review 450 tips and hundreds of thousands of pages of documents seized in simultaneous raids on Michigan's seven Catholic dioceses in 2018.

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Saginaw-area priest in prison, another suspended

Other Michigan dioceses, including Saginaw and Gaylord, have released names of clergy accused of abusing children.

In April, the Rev. Robert J. "Father Bob" DeLand Jr., who was previously suspended by the Diocese of Saginaw, was ordered to serve a minimum of two years in prison in connection with the sexual assault of a teen.

After DeLand was first arrested in February 2018, the Diocese of Saginaw vowed to help investigators. Instead, Mark J. Gaertner, chief assistant prosecutor for Saginaw County, said the diocese "stonewalled" police. Diocese leaders defended their actions for months, but later acknowledged the church could have done more to cooperate with the DeLand investigation.

About a month after DeLand's sentencing, the Diocese of Saginaw suspended another priest accused of sexual misconduct. Rev. Dennis H. Kucharczyk was the 22nd clergyman the diocese has named as having had credible allegations of misconduct made against them. Many of those previously named are deceased.

Kucharczyk told MLive/The Saginaw News he was made “to look like a pervert,” his reputation and credibility damaged, when the diocese publicly announced his suspension from the ministry. He told MLive the allegation against him is baseless.

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AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

A national and international crisis

The church's child sex-abuse scandal reaches far beyond Michigan, it's a national and international crisis.

A grand jury report released in August 2018 found that more than 300 Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania molested more than 1,000 children since the 1940s, and senior church officials, including Cardinal Donald Wuerl, former archbishop of Washington, D.C., systematically covered up the abuse, the Associated Press reported. Francis accepted Wuerl's resignation a couple months later.

That’s one example of many.

During his 2018 Christmas speech to Vatican bureaucrats, Pope Francis demanded priests who have sexually assaulted children turn themselves in and vowed that the Catholic Church will “never again” hide their crimes, the Associated Press reported at the time. Furthermore, Francis acknowledged that the church in the past had failed to treat the problem seriously.

And in February of this year, Francis summoned church leaders to a sex abuse prevention summit at the Vatican.

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Jeff Schrier | MLive.com file

How to report abuse

Anyone who has information regarding Catholic church clergy abuse in Michigan is urged to call the Attorney General's investigation hotline between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 844-324-3374, send an email to aginvestigations@michigan.gov, or submit an anonymous tip here.

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Joel Bissell | MLive.com file

What the church is doing

Boyea said the diocese has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to sexual abuse. No one from the ministry who is found to have sexually abused a minor or vulnerable adult is allowed to remain.

Many changes were made since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops passed procedures to protect children in 2002. This includes efforts to reduce the stigma associated with reporting and measures to ensure reports are taken seriously.

In addition, people entering the priesthood are subject to background checks and psychological testing, Boyea said.

The diocese also has a victim assistance coordinator and offers healing programs for survivors at the Diocese of Lansing Retreat Center in DeWitt.

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Joel Bissell | MLive.com

SNAP offers support for survivors

Tim Lennon is president of St. Louis, Missouri-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. The organization has a contact list of about 46,000 people and the network comprises about 25,000 survivors, figures that grow every year, Lennon previously told MLive/The Saginaw News. For comparison, the network had 10,000 people in its contact list in 2010.

As a survivor of clergy abuse himself, Lennon offered the following advice to other victims, "The first thing I suggest is talk to your family — a brother, a sister, a spouse. If you're a younger person, tell a counselor or your parents. In general, we encourage all to report crimes to the police. In sexual abuse, especially of young people, if there is a reasonable suspicion of abuse, please report it."

Lennon could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

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Danny Miller | MLive.com file

Related news

17 priests 'credibly accused' of abusing minors named by Catholic Diocese of Lansing

Catholic sex-abuse scandal sweeps Saginaw Diocese, Michigan and beyond

Shame and guilt haunt those who say Catholic clergy in Michigan sexually abused them

Lansing Diocese hopes disclosure of predatory priests will prompt more reports of abuse