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  Caritas Chief Reprimanded for Harassment

Casper Star Tribune
May 21, 2006

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/05/21/ap/us/d8ho174o0.txt

BOSTON - Cardinal Sean O'Malley has reprimanded the president of an archdiocese-run hospital system who is accused of kissing and touching four employees, according to a published report.

An investigation, however, determined that Robert M. Haddad, president of Caritas Christi Health Care System, should have been fired, The Boston Sunday Globe reported. Haddad is accused of sexually harassing four women in the second-largest health care system in New England.

The Boston Archdiocese acknowledged that O'Malley last week gave Haddad a "stern reprimand," a move endorsed by the health care system's board.

"Cardinal Sean took these allegations extremely seriously and sought to resolve them as expeditiously as possible, in a manner that is fair to all involved parities," the archdiocese said in a written statement to the newspaper.

The statement describes Haddad's "hugging or kissing of hospital employees ... in public and private" and said the president had promised O'Malley it would not happen again.

Haddad, 52, did not return The Globe's phone call seeking comment.

Helen G. Drinan, a senior vice president for human resources at Caritas Christi, and an outside lawyer who conducted an inquiry determined that Haddad should be fired for allegedly violating both federal workplace laws and the written sexual harassment policy of Caritas Christi.

In an e-mail obtained by the newspaper, Drinan wrote to the health care system's board: "I know what will befall this organization when the public learns that the Church in Boston has once again put the powerful predator ahead of the powerless victim."

O'Malley was installed as Boston's bishop in 2003 to help the archdiocese heal after a widespread clergy sexual abuse scandal.

Haddad, who has been president of Caritas Christi for two years, promised to take sexual harassment sensitivity training and would be fired if there is another incident, according to the archdiocese statement.

 
 

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