AUSTIN, Texas — On Thursday at 2 p.m., the Catholic Diocese of Austin released a list of 22 priests "credibly accused" of sexual assault.
"We want healing to take place, we think that by being transparent and putting out this list that that's going to help towards that," Austin Bishop Joe S. Vasquez said.
According to Bishop Vasquez, the diocese wanted to make sure they had the information correct and accurate, so they had outside investigators look at 70 years of church files. He would not tell KVUE who those investigators were.
Bishop Vasquez stated the investigators presented the names to an independent review board and they recommended the names that needed to be published to Bishop Vasquez.
"That's our responsibility as a church, when people who are in church have caused harm to individuals, then the church has to take responsibility for that," Bishop Vasquez said.
Bishop Vasquez said when the diocese needed to, they did contact the authorities.
While there are 22 members of clergy on the list, the bishop wouldn't reveal how many victims there are. He also wouldn't talk about how the church handled those cases at the time of the accusations.
"You know, I'm not going to get into the particulars of cases themselves, and that's out of respect for the victims, so I want to make sure we just stay with that, that primary reason for doing this was for the victims. The victims are the ones who hurt, and we want to make sure they were being heard," Bishop Vasquez said.
"I know there's some victims who have said they feel the church is more concerned about protecting priests than protecting victims -- what do you say to them?" KVUE Reporter Christy Millweard asked.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I really wish that these things had not happen. It's horrible that one abuse case takes place, especially of minors, people who are innocent," Bishop Vasquez said. "You people who are taken advantage of, especially by clergy who were supposed to protect them and take care of them, that is extremely sad. So, I can only say I'm sorry for the terrible pain that's been caused to them."
"Now we have to start this reparation, where we ask God to forgive the sins of others and to hopefully change and bring about change in the church so that we can prevent even one abuse of a minor from the clergy," Bishop Vasquez said.
"Why do you think the church hasn't done that until now?" Millweard asked.
"I think it's done it in places, I think it has, so I'm not going to say this is all everybody's doing, this, or everybody has a situation," Bishop Vasquez said. "But, yeah, I think the church is trying to make sincere efforts to prevent the abuse of minors by clergy and I think this is one other step that's necessary for us to do. So, that's why we want to be transparent. We definitely want to put out those names, publish the names so that people are aware of what's happened and I think this is going to bring about that healing and restoration that we need."
The bishop said they are educating their priests, deacons and clergy members in an ethics training on an "appropriate way" to interact with children and young people.
"This is a moment I think for the church to purify itself, to be able to move forward and to stop all types of abuse, sexual abuse especially of minors," Bishop Vasquez said.
The list released on Thursday does not include any clergy that sexually abused adults, only minors.
"We want to deal with the current situation, and that has to do with minors. So, out of respect for them, we do not want to do bring those two together, both minors and adults. So, it's out of respect for them that they get their story heard, and the church also responds to them," Bishop Vasquez said.
There are some other diocese in Texas that chose to release more detail about each allegation. The bishop said they don't have any plans to release more details in Austin.
RELATED: