Web site resource for priest scandals

WALTHAM, Mass., Jan. 29 (UPI) -- A huge repository of documents outside Boston is becoming an online destination for lawyers and historians studying the sex scandals in the Catholic Church.

The office of bishopaccountability.org in Waltham holds tons of documents pertaining to the investigations and allegations against priests accused of sexual abuse.

The Boston Globe said Tuesday that the operators of the site want to make it a "go-to" Web destination for historians and for the release of new documents in the sprawling scandal.

"They're the best source of information in terms of the history of this crisis," said Dallas lawyer Sylvia Demarest, a member of the Web site board. "The first and foremost objective would be public education, for parents and victims and reporters and lawyers. But the second would be to serve as a research mecca for scholars."

A church spokeswoman, however, told the Globe that the site appeared to give equal weight to allegations and claims that had not been substantiated.

"The web site is useful for monitoring (media) coverage, but it seems to print things indiscriminately, said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops spokeswoman.