NEW ORLEANS -- In the hours since the Archdiocese of New Orleans released the names of clergy members who have committed sexual abuse, WWL-TV received messages from many who say their abuser is not on the list.
For Ashley Berry Allen, she estimates it's been 16 years since she was abused by a priest at Our Lady of Prompt Succor School.
"It was and still remains very painful, I am, and that's never going to go away, I just have to cope," Allen said.
But there are days she has flashbacks.
"And it'd be just right there in the vestibule, I still can't bear to have my husband hold my face," she said.
It's been hard to talk about, but back in July of this year, she was shocked to find out her abuser passed away and felt a flood of emotions.
"And I feel like a coward that now only now once he's dead that I finally felt this anger and this rage and this need for people to know what he did," she said.
However, his death helped release her from fear to speak up. And today she doesn't want other victims to feel ashamed.
"My Facebook page, for a while, I took three photos of what I looked like at 12 and 13 including one of them, my confirmation picture," she said.
The pictures she says shows how young and vulnerable she was, and she said since July she's been in contact with the Archdiocese, documenting her emails and voicemails. But after seeing the list come out Friday, she was adamant the church has concealed yet another abuser.
"You know they're talking about, we want to be really open, we want to be honest, we want to show you that we're fixing things, but I know for a fact you left one abuser out," she said.
Berry recalls at the time of the abuse she told a teacher and somehow the priest was removed, but it was not immediate, and it allowed him to continue. Berry later moved on to high school, thinking the priest had retired.
"18 years old and I find on Google that he's been reassigned to a church that's connected to a school in New York," Berry said.
And this is why she tells her story, she wants to push the church to reveal more names, along with acknowledgment for failing to report her abuser to police.
"I want an apology and I want an apology for them disregarding my teacher who reported this and sending him to another parish to possibly hurt other children."
WWL-TV contacted the New Orleans Archdiocese to ask if Berry Allen's abuser was being investigated. They would not comment specifically but a spokesperson wrote saying, "We take all phone calls of accusations seriously and investigate. There are very few pending investigations that are not concluded. Our intent is to complete investigations and add names to the list if necessary."
Jacqueline Quynh can be reached at jquynh@wwltv.com.