BishopAccountability

Advocates are seeking an investigation into the Catholic bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts, over his response to priest abuse allegations.

The Waltham-based group Bishop Accountability filed a complaint against Bishop Robert McManus.

The allegations involved priest Alan Martineau, whom McManus initially planned to transfer to another parish.

However, the diocese says that it canceled the transfer and notified authorities once sexual abuse concerns emerged.

Michael Harrington reporting.

Advocates are seeking an investigation into the Catholic bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts, over his response to priest abuse allegations.

The Waltham-based group Bishop Accountability filed a complaint against Bishop Robert McManus.

The allegations involved priest Alan Martineau, whom McManus initially planned to transfer to another parish.

What are survivors saying about this?

Well, according to the group Bishop Accountability, 92% of the diocese across the United States have published a list of credibly accused priests, including all the diocese in Massachusetts, except Worcester.

Some survivors now in their 60s and 70s have lived in communities or have been members of families where people do not believe that abuse occurred, that they were abused.

So a published list by a diocese or by an attorney general, could be a form of validation which can be healing.

The church has failed victims in the case of Bishop Saunders, and it's really discouraging that this is happening in 2026.

From her home in the US city of Boston, Anne Barrett Doyle, a practicing Catholic, helps run the organization Bishop Accountability, which tracks accusations of abuse and misconduct globally.

It is absolutely chilling that he preyed upon a vulnerable population where the power differential was so huge.

Her main concerns, the church authorities allowed Christopher Saunders to continue socializing and camping with young people for several years after allegations were made, and that he remains a bishop emeritus even after the criminal conviction.

So I don't understand why you can tell those diocese to publish those names when you can't publish the names.

And Terry McKernan, you may know him, he's runs that Bishop Accountability website that has monitored and lists all these, uh, priests credibly accused and all their, uh, crimes or alleged crimes.

He says that, um, in all these other states that they have, uh, the AGs there have gone through each diocese priest by priest, not only to tell the story, but to name the person.

So what's the deal with, with naming these priests?

The number of priests abusing children worldwide then and now is staggering.

What must it be like in the Philippines, where only one priest was convicted last year? In January 2025, the United States-based watchdog group BishopAccountability.org launched an online database naming eighty-two Catholic priests and bishops linked to the Philippines who have been publicly accused of sexually abusing minors.

Researchers say this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The rest of that proverbial iceberg, based on theoretical estimates, is as follows.