In leaving out the names of religious order and visiting priests, O'Malley cited canon law, or church law, saying it is up to the superior of a religious order or the bishop of a home diocese to investigate clergy abuse accusations.
But church records show that the Boston Archdiocese has often investigated accusations against religious order and visiting priests - and paid their alleged victims to settle damage claims.
Indeed, the Vatican has allowed bishops wide discretion in responding to the clergy sexual abuse crisis, and bishops in some other dioceses have not felt bound by a narrow reading like O'Malley's, according to a recent survey by BishopAccountability.org.
Among those who have released lists that include the names of religious order and visiting clerics are major Catholic jurisdictions, such as the archdioceses of Baltimore and Los Angeles, the largest in the United States.
Some of those church leaders said they felt compelled to issue as complete a list as possible, to maximize its potential usefulness for those who say they were abused.
"We felt it was important to name them to fulfill the purpose for putting the list out, which was to ensure that if there were other victims they would feel encouraged to come forward," explained Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson, whose list of accused priests includes both religious order and visiting clerics.
The Tucson diocese also disclosed the names of priests - both alive and dead - who have faced accusations that have never been made public. O'Malley's list omitted the names of 91 accused clerics of the Boston Archdiocese, most of whom are dead and are not the subject of public accusations. That means that of a total of 320 priests here who have faced some form of accusation, 161 - the 91 plus the 70 from religious orders and other jurisdictions - are not on the archdiocesan website's tally of names.
Some critics say that O'Malley's approach is designed to limit the likelihood of new victims coming forward and thus of future financial liability for an archdiocese that has already paid out $147 million in settlements and another $43.5 million to cover legal costs, counseling for victims, and sexual abuse prevention initiatives.
"The driving force in not releasing a full list is money," said Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney who represents clergy sex abuse victims.
