Brooklyn bishop to name accused priests

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Bishop Thomas V. Daily of Brooklyn announced Wednesday he will give county district attorneys the names of all priests "accused of sexual misconduct with minors in the last 20 years."

"It is expected that the district attorneys will receive some names on Friday," Daily said in a statement faxed to CNN by the diocese. "I am doing so as it represents the best way to cooperate with the spirit of the law."

Queens County District Attorney Richard Brown called Daily's announcement "a positive and productive step."

"I'm thrilled," said Susan Langford, regional director for the Survivors' Network of Those Abused by Priests, a national support group.

But, she said, the release of the names will be largely in vain because New York's statute of limitations means many instances of alleged abuse will not be prosecutable.

"Everyone in the hierarchy in New York is looking at what's happening in Boston, and they're scared," said Langford, referring to the intense pressure on Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law.

Law has been accused of failing to take action against several priests alleged to have sexually abused minors -- including defrocked priest John Geoghan, who is serving a prison sentence for child molestation, and Rev. Paul Shanley, accused of sexual abuse.

Formerly Law's second-in-command in Boston, Daily has come under heavy media scrutiny for allegedly ignoring repeated warnings about potentially abusive priests in the Boston area in the 1980s and more in his Brooklyn diocese during the 1990s.

Both Law and Daily have been criticized for not informing law enforcement of those allegations when they were made.

Earlier this month, Daily issued a statement about clerical sexual abuse in which he said, "In hindsight I profoundly regret certain decisions" made while serving in the Boston Archdiocese. He did not specify to which decisions he was referring.