Since releasing a long list of priests accused of child sexual abuse, the Diocese of Harrisburg has repeatedly vowed to be open and transparent.

Bishop Ronald Gainer has said his church’s darkest days are sins of the past.

But the Harrisburg diocese doesn’t have to look beyond last month to find evidence that it's breaking its own promises of transparency to the public.

On multiple days in late October, the diocese wouldn't answer when or why it hired a Republican strategist, lobbyist and crisis communicator to protect its image while claiming to put survivors first.

A York Daily Record analysis shows the Diocese of Harrisburg continues to put a high priority on protecting its image while not answering questions that are a matter of public safety.

A church in crisis

Bishop Gainer stood at a podium on Aug. 1 and shared the Diocese of Harrisburg’s biggest confession: more than 70 priests had been accused of child sexual abuse.

The admission was such a big turning point in the history of the diocese and Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania that nobody paid much attention to the man who introduced the bishop.

Before Gainer said a word, a man in a navy suit spoke to reporters and clerical staff who were packed into a back room at the diocese.

He smiled over his left shoulder at Gainer as he walked toward the microphone.

“Good morning, everyone. My name is Mike Barley. I am the spokesman for the Harrisburg diocese,” he said.

He wasn’t listed as a spokesman for the diocese on its website or in its directory on Aug. 1, though he's been quoted since at least June as spokesman. Three months later, he still isn’t found in the staff directory.

Rachel Bryson, who was hired on Aug. 27, is listed as the executive director of communications, and Joe Aponick, who has worked at the diocese for years, is listed as the director of communications.

Bryson was added to the communications staff two weeks after a statewide grand jury report revealed more than 301 predator priests in six dioceses in Pennsylvania, including the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

But all public media inquiries on priest abuse ultimately go through Barley. Many questions on priest abuse and more are left unanswered.

Those unanswered questions include the locations of accused priests, whose abusive backgrounds are unknown to the children and neighbors around them, and how much money the church is spending to help priest abuse survivors in its victims assistance office.

Despite not answering those questions, the diocese has remained steadfast in its claims of transparency. At least twice in October, the diocese made public statements that reflect that.

The Harrisburg diocese on Oct. 1 said, "As we all strive to find healing, our commitment to transparency remains firm.

On Oct. 18, the diocese said, "The Diocese has worked to be open and transparent regarding the issue of child sexual abuse and its past."

But the diocese will not even say when Barley was hired.

By his own public statements, Barley is the spokesman for the diocese.

An analysis of state and public records shows Barley is a Republican strategist, lobbyist and crisis communicator.

And his work for the Harrisburg diocese began before the bishop uttered a word about the dozens of its priests accused of child sex abuse.

More:'Go home, be a good priest': How 25 bishops in Pa. Catholic dioceses responded to sex abuse

More:Pa. priest arrested for soliciting sex before diocese placed him in central Pa. church

Who is Mike Barley?

By the nature of his professions, Barley works behind the scenes to wield influence.

He’s been praised as one of the top political strategists in Pennsylvania by the lobbying firm he works for, Long Nyquist and Associates.

As a lobbyist there, “he’s handled corporate clients and developed a close relationship with the state Senate’s powerful Republican leadership. One result of that relationship will soon be seen across the state: Barley was integral to a recent, successful expansion of gambling,” according to City & State in December 2017.

More:Priest abuse: How to report clergy sexual abuse to top authorities in Pennsylvania

In the last decade, he served as the executive director of the state Republican Party and helped numerous candidates get elected, expanding Republican majorities in Congress, the state Legislature and judicial seats in 2010.

As the campaign strategist for former Gov. Tom Corbett, he crafted messages and strategies to win voters. Corbett, a Republican, lost his re-election bid in 2014 to Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat from York County.

Even while he’s communicating for the Catholic Church, he’s still working to get Republicans elected, including congressional candidates Dan Meuser and Lloyd Smucker.

Barley is also the managing partner of Riverview Communications, a public relations firm in Harrisburg.

It's unclear why the Diocese of Harrisburg wants Barley, with his strong Republican and lobbying relationships, to be its spokesman. The diocese and Barley have not answered multiple inquiries from the York Daily Record. We asked:

Why did the diocese hire Mike Barley, a lobbyist and Republican strategist, to help with diocese communications after the grand jury report was released?

In his own bios and in articles written about him, Barley's connections with powerful Senate leaders have been acknowledged. How have those connections helped during a statewide investigation?

What is Barley's relationship with Sen. Joe Scarnati and did he lobby for institutions to be excluded from Senate Bill 261? That bill would allow priest abuse victims to sue their perpetrators, but not the dioceses that covered up the abuse.

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How other dioceses communicate

The Harrisburg diocese is the only one in Pennsylvania that is responding to investigations and mounting public pressure by hiring a Republican strategist, lobbyist and crisis communicator.

The other seven dioceses in Pennsylvania said they do not have such a person on staff. In fact, four dioceses said they had the same communications team they’ve always had, and it’s usually one person. They say transparency is a key part of the healing process.

“Clearly, we have to rebuild trust,” said Anne-Marie Welsh, director of communications for the Erie diocese. “Trust has been broken. Transparency is one very important step as we move into the future. I don’t say that to mean we are moving on, because we can never leave this behind.”

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Tony DeGol has been the secretary for communications at the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown for about 10 years. In that time, he’s been the director and only staff person in the Office of Communications.

“Sadly, many faithful do not trust the Church as an institution. One way to restore that trust is through honest communication. The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown is committed to transparency and will remain committed to transparency,” he said.

The Diocese of Allentown consulted with a crisis communications firm, but only to get help creating a website, according to Matt Kerr, the director of communications since 2000. The site details the diocese’s response to the grand jury report.

The grand jury found dozens of abusive priests in the Allentown diocese and staff who did not report the abuse. In effort to learn from history and never repeat it, Allentown recently held a training on mandatory reporting.

“The Diocese believes that open communication with the faithful and the media is always important but especially in these challenging times,” Kerr said.

After the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was investigated by a state grand jury in 2005, it hired a victim advocate in 2006 to review the way it treated victims.

Survivors find flaws in all these responses, saying a church left to police itself is always a bad idea.

“Their best thinking got us to where we are today,” said Michael McDonnell, a SNAP leader in Philadelphia.

But he said Harrisburg’s response in hiring a lobbyist is by far the worst.

“The lobbyist is there to help the church, not the victims,” McDonnell said.

More:Where do 'predator priests' live? Harrisburg diocese now says it doesn't track them all

Mounting pressure

The Diocese of Harrisburg is under both state and federal investigation.

State attorneys are still working to unearth redacted sections of a Pennsylvania grand jury report that determined child sex abuse within the Catholic Church "happened everywhere."

Federal attorneys launched their own investigation last month and warned every diocese in the nation not to destroy its records.

The Harrisburg diocese also faces the possibility of being sued if a House bill passes. The bill would open a so-called “window to justice,” which was recommended in the grand jury report, and allow child sex abuse victims to sue perpetrators and the institutions that protected them.

However, Senate Republican leaders wrote and amended their own bill that removed institutions. In short, it meant dioceses and churches could not be sued. That bill was not put up for a vote, and abuse survivors said lobbying was partially to blame.

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The Senate bill was in line with what Gainer and other Pennsylvania bishops called for – a victims’ fund in an amount of the bishops' choosing and no liability for the actions of its predator priests.

More:5 things the feds are looking for on Pa. Catholic priest abuse that were already found

More:Feds put Catholic church across the nation on notice: Don't destroy any evidence of abuse

More:A powerful lobby blocked changes in Pa. child sex abuse laws. Here's who and here's why.

James Faluczak, an abuse survivor and former Erie priest who testified before the state grand jury, said Gainer is a bishop in a state capital, and that automatically propels him into the political arena. His Harrisburg diocese is near lawmakers and the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference lobbyists who influence them.

“Nothing has changed in the Catholic Church,” Faluczak said. “They just find new ways to hide things.”

Faluczak was one of several survivors who lined the halls of the State Capitol Building last month, reading aloud the grand jury report. He and his fellow survivors were lobbying the Senate to side with them.

The vote didn’t go in their favor. There wasn’t a vote at all.

But Faluczak, who was in active ministry from 1998 to 2016, said survivors are not deterred.

“There’s a ton of momentum in Pennsylvania. I think all the victims could stop talking, and it would keep going,” he said. “The investigations have taken on a life of their own.”

Unanswered questions

For a diocese that has repeatedly pledged to be transparent, there are still more questions than answers.

Since Gainer shared a list of 71 predator priests on Aug. 1, which they updated to 72 priests, the diocese has ignored or evaded several inquiries.

Some of the unanswered questions asked by the York Daily Record include locations of accused priests, how much the church is paying accused priests who have not been laicized, or formally removed from the priesthood; the status of priests being defrocked and more.Sharing the answers to these questions is a matter of public safety.

When pressed, the Harrisburg diocese has said multiple times to the YDR that, on the advice of its legal counsel, it cannot comment.

Barley gave a similar comment to PennLive, The Daily Item and other publications when asked about a lawsuit filed against the diocese in August: "We are still reviewing a copy of the lawsuit, so it would not be appropriate for us to comment on it at this time.”

Despite the numerous promises to be transparent, priest abuse survivors say the Harrisburg diocese has fallen short.

If victims are really the top priority, the Diocese of Harrisburg doesn’t need a Republican strategist, lobbyist or crisis communicator to answer questions or help with public relations, Faluczak said.

“You need lessons in responsibility and transparency? You’re the Catholic Church. Read the gospel.”