[Downloaded from http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/dallas/2002/priests.cgi
on 2/18/04. See also the original
list of bishops as it was printed and the article
about the database.]
Roughly two-thirds of top U.S. Catholic leaders have allowed priests
accused of sexual abuse to keep working, a systematic practice that
spans decades and continues today, a three-month Dallas Morning
News review shows. The study - the first of its kind - looked
at the records of the top leaders of the nation’s 178 mainstream Roman
Catholic dioceses, including acting administrators in cases where
the top job is vacant.
Excluded from the study were auxiliary bishops who, in larger dioceses,
serve in subordinate roles but still can vote on many matters before
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the 17 bishops who lead eparchies,
which are diocese-like entities that worship according to the Eastern
rite.
In checking whether a bishop had protected priests or other church
representatives accused of sexual abuse, reporters Brooks
Egerton and Reese
Dunklin relied on published reports, court records, interviews
and church records obtained in civil litigation. Most protected priests
were accused of sexually abusing minors - primarily adolescent boys,
but also younger ones, and a sizable number of girls of various ages.
The newspaper’s study also covered behavior that indicated a sexual
attraction to minors, such as viewing child pornography or, in one
case, trading sexually charged e-mails with someone a priest believed
was a minor.
[Click on a name below to go directly to the entry for that bishop.
See also a downloadable
spreadsheet showing the current status of each bishop.
| Angell | Aymond
| Baker | Banks
| Barnes | Beltran
| Bevilacqua | Boland
| Bosco | Brom
| Brown | Brunett
| Carmody | Clark
| Cooney | Corrada
Del Rio | Cronin | Cullen
| Cummins | Curlin
| Curtiss | Daily
| Delaney | DiLorenzo
| DiMarzio | DiNardo
| Doran | Dorsey
| Driscoll | Dupre
| Egan | Favalora
| Fellhauer | Fiorenza
| Fliss | Flores
| Flynn | Foley
| Gaydos | George
| Gerry | Gettelfinger
| Gossman | Grahmann
| Griffin | Hanus
| Hart | Higi
| Hoffman | Hubbard
| Hughes | Imesch
| Jacobs | Jarrell
| Keeler | Kelly
| Kmiec | Law
| Leibrecht | Levada
| Lori | Lucas
| Lynch | Mahony
| Maida | Mansell
| McCarrick | McCormack
| McGrath | McRaith
| Mengeling | Milone
| Moreno | Moynihan
| Mulvee | Murray
| Murry | Murtagh
| Myers | Nevins
| O'Brien | Peña
| Pfeifer | Pilarczyk
| Pilla | Ramirez
| Reilly | Rigali
| Rodi | Rodimer
| Rodriguez | Rose
| Ryan | Schwietz
| Sheehan | Sklba
| Smith | Steinbock
| Straling | Sullivan
| Tafoya | Tamayo
| Timlin | Trautman
| Untener | Weigand
| Wuerl | Yanta
| Zipfel ]
Diocese location |
Bishop's name |
Allegation |
Burlington,
Vt. |
BISHOP KENNETH ANGELL |
The Diocese of Providence, R.I.,
where he was auxiliary bishop from 1974 to 1992, has
paid more than $1 million to settle lawsuits that accused
him and other leaders of covering up abuse by several
priests. Bishop Angell testified in a 1990 lawsuit that
he did not take seriously allegations - made by both
parishioners and assistant priests - that the Rev. William
O'Connell was molesting boys. The priest was convicted,
served a short sentence, moved to New Jersey, committed
more crimes and died in prison. In another Rhode Island
case, Bishop Angell in 1989 promised to "take care of
it" when the Rev. Normand Demers was accused of misconduct
with boys while working at a Haitian orphanage, according
to a former orphanage staffer. The priest was brought
back to work in the Providence diocese (see more under
that listing). More recently, Bishop Angell allowed
six accused priests to stay on the job in Vermont, then
later gave their names to the state attorney general
and suspended them. He would not identify them publicly. |
Austin,
Texas |
BISHOP GREGORY AYMOND |
As a New Orleans auxiliary bishop
in 1998, he kept Catholic schoolteacher Brian Matherne on the job despite an allegation that he'd molested
a student years earlier. Bishop Aymond has said he dropped
the matter without alerting police because the alleged
victim wouldn't speak to him. That young man later went
to police himself, and authorities said more children
had been molested in the meantime. Mr. Matherne has
since been sentenced to prison after admitting that
he abused 17 boys. Lawsuits against the New Orleans
archdiocese are pending. Bishop Aymond has said he would
do things differently today. |
Charleston,
S.C. |
BISHOP ROBERT BAKER |
In February, a spokesman denied
a lawsuit's allegation that the diocese was employing
a "known priest-pedophile." Later, the spokesman acknowledged
that an accused priest remained on the job, after having
been suspended in the mid-1990s, moved to a smaller
parish and ordered not to be alone with children. The
Rev. Paul Seitz has since resigned, for what the diocese
said were unrelated health reasons. The man who accused
Father Seitz already has provided crucial testimony
in the case against another priest, the Rev. Eugene
Condon, who pleaded guilty to abuse in 1998 and was
sentenced to probation. The accuser told the FBI that
as a teenager in the 1960s he went to Father Condon
for confession after Father Seitz abused him. Father
Condon gave him alcohol and tried to molest him too,
he said, and years later showed him a trunk full of
photographs of naked boys whose pictures had been taken
in a church rectory. In another instance, Bishop Baker
two years ago moved to transfer the Rev. John Bench
to a diocese in Florida, after paying a settlement to
the family of a young girl the priest admitted abusing.
The bishop dropped the idea after the family protested.
Earlier this spring, Bishop Baker was criticized by
Atlanta Archbishop John Donoghue for not immediately
reporting abuse allegations to government authorities.
The Charleston diocesan spokesman said it investigates
internally first to "be sure we have a credible allegation." |
Green Bay,
Wis. |
BISHOP ROBERT BANKS |
As a top aide to Boston Cardinal
Bernard Law, he helped the Rev. Paul Shanley transfer
to the Diocese of San Bernardino, Calif., in the early
1990s. The Boston archdiocese had been receiving allegations
for many years that Father Shanley had molested children
and publicly advocated sex between men and boys, but
Bishop Banks wrote a counterpart in California that
the priest "has no problem that would be a concern to
your diocese." Bishop Banks has said he was unaware
of Father Shanley's problems. "Maybe I dropped the ball,
but it did not come to my attention," he recently told
Wisconsin newspapers. "I know it seems strange to you
that you could have 800 pages in a personnel file and
that I, as the vicar for administration, would not know
about it, but I did not know about it." In Green Bay,
Bishop Banks recently suspended at least one priest,
whom he described as devastated by a molestation accusation.
"We're presuming that it's false," the bishop said.
In late May, a task force he appointed said that seven
priests accused of sexually abusing minors remained
in active ministry; they were not named. Some were said
to have been accused by people who withdrew their allegations,
for reasons that were not explained. Six unnamed priests
were said to be under criminal investigation, but it
wasn't clear whether any of this group remained on the
job. Bishop Banks responded by promising reform, saying
that past policies were "at best inadequate and at worst
scandalous." |
San Bernardino,
Calif. |
BISHOP GERALD BARNES |
Bishop Barnes, who was the diocese's
No. 2 official for much of the early 1990s and became
its head in 1996, let four priests remain active until
this spring despite abuse allegations kept in the diocese's
records. His spokesman identified only two - the Rev.
Peter Luque and the Rev. Peter Covas - but would not
say specifically what they had been accused of, when
the alleged abuse occurred and when the diocese had
been alerted. Complaints about the priests were forwarded
to police in April, along with information about 16
inactive clerics. Among the 16 was the Rev. Joe Fertal,
whom the diocese has allowed since 1995 to live at a
church complex used by high school students for overnight
retreats. The diocese confidentially settled a lawsuit
in 1996 that accused Father Fertal of sexually abusing
a 16-year-old boy. The priest, who denied wrongdoing,
was expected to relocate this spring. |
Oklahoma
City, Okla. |
ARCHBISHOP EUSEBIUS BELTRAN |
In 1994, he got a written warning
from the Diocese of Lansing, Mich., where one of his
priests formerly worked and had just been sued. "We
fear that more victims are going to emerge," the Michigan
bishop wrote. "In light of these developments, I am
obliged to alert you to potential dangers of Father
[James] Rapp continuing in the ministry." Archbishop
Beltran sent the priest for a therapeutic evaluation
- something he'd received at least twice before, while
in other parts of the country - but allowed him to remain
pastor of a church in the southern Oklahoma town of
Duncan. Father Rapp subsequently abused more boys and
was sentenced to prison in 1999; the archdiocese and
the priest's religious order, the Oblates of St. Francis
de Sales, have paid one victim a $5 million settlement.
Archbishop Beltran has declined to comment, citing litigation
that is still pending. In a deposition obtained by The
Washington Post, he blamed the head of the order for
not doing more to stop Father Rapp. |
Philadelphia,
Pa. |
CARDINAL ANTHONY BEVILACQUA |
He has said he did not know
that the Rev. John P. Connor, who was leader of a local
parish from 1988 to 1993, had previously admitted in
court to molesting a 14-year-old boy from a Catholic
school in nearby Camden County, N.J., where the priest
once taught. After leaving the Camden diocese and before
going to Philadelphia, Father Connor also worked in
the Pittsburgh diocese - at a time when Cardinal Bevilacqua
was bishop there. Early this year, the cardinal dismissed
six priests known to have abused minors over the years
and said that the archdiocese had identified a total
of 35 priests who had sexually abused children since
1950. Initially he refused to give names of those priests
to authorities, saying he was concerned about protecting
victims' confidentiality. He later relented under pressure
from prosecutors. Archdiocese officials have said the
dismissed priests had been working in administrative
jobs and have been told to seek lay status from the
Vatican. That would strip them of the right to perform
sacramental duties. |
Kansas
City-St. Joseph, Mo. |
BISHOP RAYMOND BOLAND |
He is among several bishops
who were accused in a racketeering lawsuit in April
of protecting Bishop Anthony O'Connell, who recently
resigned as head of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla.,
after admitting he had abused a seminary student years
ago in Missouri. Bishop Boland was specifically accused
of doing nothing after one of Bishop O'Connell's victims
alerted him to abuse in late 1993 or early 1994. Bishop
Boland does not recall "any conversation with anyone
claiming sexual abuse by Bishop O'Connell," his spokesman
has said. This spring, Bishop Boland told parishioners
that "we presently have no priest, teacher or youth
minister in a parish or school who has ever been accused
of any form of child sexual abuse." The following month,
the diocese said that the Rev. Thomas O'Brien had been
a hospital chaplain for more than 15 years, since being
forced into therapy over allegations that he touched
boys inappropriately and supplied them alcohol at parties.
Monsignor O'Brien retired in April and has denied wrongdoing,
the diocese said. |
Greensburg,
Pa. |
BISHOP ANTHONY BOSCO |
He has suspended at least three
priests this spring after reviewing information that
was already in their personnel files. Bishop Bosco,
who has headed the Greensburg diocese since 1987, has
refused to identify the men but has turned over their
files to local prosecutors. One priest had more than
one abuse complaint on record, a diocesan spokesman
said. |
San Diego,
Calif. |
BISHOP ROBERT BROM
|
He is one of about a dozen U.S.
bishops who have been accused of sexual misconduct in
recent years. Catholic leaders in Minnesota, where Bishop
Brom once headed the Diocese of Duluth, have paid a
settlement to a former seminarian who alleged that he
was coerced into sex. A spokeswoman for the bishop recently
told The Boston Globe that "minimal insurance"
money was paid to the accuser, who agreed to retract
his claim. Two archbishops who helped negotiate the
deal in the mid-1990s said the man received roughly
$100,000. The man alleged that in the 1980s, Bishop
Brom and other high-ranking clergymen pressured him
and other young men to have sex at a seminary in Winona,
Minn. Bishop Brom has denied any sexual misconduct and
has said that an investigation disproved what the former
seminarian "thought he remembered." In San Diego after
Bishop Brom took over, questions arose about how his
top aides handled the 1993 case of the Rev. Emmanuel
Omemaga, who was accused of raping a 14-year-old girl
after her grandfather's funeral, tying her to a bed
and photographing her in bondage. The diocese has said
it suspended the priest when it first learned of the
accusation, then let him go home to the Philippines
on vacation. Police, meanwhile, began investigating
and asked a priest who was one of the bishop's aides
to alert them immediately upon Father Omemaga's return.
"He agreed to do so" but instead waited five days, according
to a police report. At that point, according to the
report, the aide left a message saying that he had told
the wanted man to call police and to consult an attorney.
Father Omemaga vanished and remains the target of an
arrest warrant. The aide has said he did everything
he could do to bring his fellow priest to justice. |
Orange,
Calif. |
BISHOP TOD BROWN
|
In late March, after a lengthy
review of personnel files, he proclaimed his diocese
a "safe haven" - a place free of priests with molestation
records. The review, required under a $5.2 million settlement
reached last year with the victim of a former priest
in the diocese, had led to removal of at least two clerics
who'd been working for years after admitting abuse.
Then in April, local media reported that the Rev. Denis
Lyons had been accused of sexual misconduct for the
third time and suspended. Bishop Brown's predecessor
had sent Father Lyons into treatment after both previous
allegations arose, in 1993 and 1994. The bishop hadn't
fired the priest during the review, officials said,
because one allegation involved misconduct with two
adults and the other, involving two boys, could not
be substantiated. The priests removed because of the
review included the Rev. Michael Pecharich, who admitted
six years ago that he molested a teenage boy in the
early 1980s; and the Rev. John Lenihan, who admitted
more than a decade ago that he had sexually abused a
teenage girl. The diocese paid one settlement then and
another this year to a woman who said Father Lenihan
abused her when she was a teen in the 1970s and paid
for her abortion. |
Seattle,
Wash. |
ARCHBISHOP ALEXANDER BRUNETT |
The Rev. John Cornelius previously
had been accused of touching young boys and at one point
been demoted because of a complaint. Archbishop Brunett,
who arrived in 1997, nevertheless kept employing the
prominent priest, who'd made news for formally or informally
adopting 13 children and keeping company with such celebrities
as civil-rights activist Rosa Parks. But as more sex-abuse
claims surfaced this spring, the archbishop suspended
Father Cornelius from an assistant pastor's job. Then
it was revealed that a 1996 psychiatric evaluation had
raised concerns about his continued employment and that
the archdiocese had been paying a state parole officer
to monitor the priest since 1997. In May, as the number
of victims approached at least a dozen, Father Cornelius
resigned. Archbishop Brunett also has been accused of
moving slowly against a second priest, the Rev. Gregory
Schmitt, who is facing claims that he coerced a woman
who sought his counseling into a sexual relationship
that began in Kansas City, Mo., and continued in Seattle.
The woman said she notified the Seattle archdiocese
in 1999, but church officials said they thought the
relationship was consensual so did nothing. After she
filed suit in late April, Father Schmitt was suspended. |
Corpus
Christi, Texas |
BISHOP EDMOND CARMODY |
As bishop in Tyler, Texas in
the late 1990s, he let the Rev. John Flynn serve at
a Longview church after the priest admitted sexual abuse
of a girl in the 1970s and was removed from the largest
parish in the San Antonio archdiocese. Monsignor Flynn,
a longtime friend of the bishop's, was ordered into
treatment and recently was quoted as saying, "I'm not
restricted from being around young people." Bishop Carmody
has said Monsignor Flynn is no threat and that "it's
time to forgive and go on." The bishop's successor in
Tyler recently removed the priest. In 1998, meanwhile,
a lawsuit accused Bishop Carmody and the Tyler diocese
of ignoring warnings about the Rev. Gustavo Cuello,
who fled the country after his 1997 indictment on charges
that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl at his
church. Bishop Carmody denied the charges and recently
said that he settled the suit for less than $100,000.
Father Cuello remains at large. |
Rochester,
N.Y. |
BISHOP MATTHEW CLARK |
The longtime bishop - who wrote
in 1990 that pedophile clergy were afflicted but not
sinful - allowed six accused priests to remain active
until recently, including two who had been criminally
investigated. Allegations already in diocesan files
led Bishop Clark to announce the removal five of the
priests in May; another priest resigned in April. Some
victims had previously expressed concerns to the diocese
that the Rev. Thomas Burr, the Rev. Foster Rogers and
the Rev. David Simon were still in parish ministry.
Their alleged incidents happened more than 20 years
ago with teenagers, but the church would not disclose
specifics. Two other priests, the Rev. William Lum and
the Rev. Thomas Corbett, kept working in desk jobs at
diocesan offices despite arrests in the 1990s. Father
Lum had pleaded guilty in connection with assaulting
a 16-year-old boy. Father Corbett was charged on two
sex-abuse counts involving an adult woman, but the case
was dismissed. The sixth priest, the Rev. Joseph Brodnick,
resigned in April as a hospital chaplain amid decades-old
allegations. He had previously been accused of abusing
a teenage girl early in his priesthood in Cleveland,
which loaned him to Rochester in 1997. Rochester officials
were aware of Father Brodnick's past before he arrived;
they said he posed no danger. |
Gaylord,
Mich. |
BISHOP PATRICK COONEY |
Last summer, he let the Rev.
Gerald Shirilla serve as pastor of a church with a school,
although he knew that the priest had been forced out
of the Detroit Archdiocese in 1993 by abuse allegations
that dated back decades. After the Detroit Free Press
reported on the situation this year, Bishop Cooney said
that the priest had made "some errors in judgment" but
was "no threat to the well-being of our children." Two
weeks later, he suspended him. Among those who have
accused Father Shirilla are former professional baseball
player Tom Paciorek and three of his brothers. Father
Shirilla has admitted massaging boys in their underwear
but said there was nothing inappropriate about it, and
he denied molesting anyone. |
Tyler,
Texas |
BISHOP ALVARO CORRADA DEL RIO |
The Rev. John Flynn had stepped
down from his post at a prominent San Antonio parish
in 1997 after admitting that he had molested a teenage
girl many years earlier. Within two years, however,
he had re-emerged as head of the Longview parish. Bishop
Corrada del Rio's predecessor, Corpus Christi Bishop
Edmond Carmody, brought Monsignor Flynn to the Tyler
diocese. (see more under the Corpus Christi listing.)
But Bishop Corrada del Rio continued to let the priest
work without restrictions until he forced him out in
May. The bishop said he acted after two female congregants
expressed discomfort with Monsignor Flynn. |
Hartford,
Conn. |
ARCHBISHOP DANIEL CRONIN |
Since arriving from the Fall
River, Mass., diocese in 1992, he has kept at least
four accused priests in Hartford. The archdiocese knew
about two complaints against the Rev. Louis Paturzo,
but he remained on duty until May, when he admitted
molesting young boys and resigned from his job at a
middle school. Both incidents happened in the 1970s,
when he was a church deacon; he joined the priesthood
in 1981. Father Paturzo was first accused in 1993, but
was allowed to continue working after state police could
not prove the allegations and psychiatrists said he
posed no threat to children. Archbishop Cronin also
was aware of allegations against the Rev. Peter Zizka long before he was placed on leave in 1999. The priest
was ordered to undergo treatment in 1993; two years
later he was accused in lawsuits of fondling and having
intercourse with two teenage girls who had sought his
counseling in the 1970s. A third woman sued in 1997.
Father Zizka denied the allegations. Archbishop Cronin
refused in March to name two other priests kept on the
job despite abuse complaints. |
Allentown,
Pa. |
BISHOP EDWARD CULLEN |
Until February, he let four
priests work despite decades-old allegations, which
were detailed in their personnel files, that they had
sexually abused children. He dismissed the men as the
Boston clergy scandal brought pressure on dioceses nationwide
to reassess their handling of molestation cases. Bishop
Cullen initially refused to tell a prosecutor the priests'
names or the parishes they served because, he said,
the statute of limitations had expired. He relented
in May, when four other prosecutors joined the call
for disclosure. |
Oakland,
Calif. |
BISHOP JOHN CUMMINS |
Until this spring, the longtime
bishop kept the Rev. Robert Freitas on the job despite
accusations made in 1985 that the priest molested two
teen-age boys, one of whom was paid a settlement. Bishop
Cummins halted Father Freitas' chaplain duties at a
retirement home for nuns in April after police filed
criminal charges against the priest. A third victim
recently told police that the priest had repeatedly
fondled his genitals and performed oral sex on him while
he was a teenage church volunteer in 1979 and the early
1980s. The victim helped police secretly record a confession
from Father Freitas, but the priest has pleaded not
guilty to the molestation. When the first two victims
took their allegations to the diocese in 1985, church
officials investigated, then suspended Father Freitas
and ordered him into treatment. The church did not forward
either boy's claim to authorities. After counseling,
Father Freitas was assigned to a desk job at an Oakland
charity that helps AIDS patients. Years later, at his
request, the diocese let him return to ministry as a
chaplain. For several years, he also lived in the rectory
of church with a school. |
Charlotte,
N.C. |
BISHOP WILLIAM CURLIN |
In March, he said that he had
"zero tolerance for child sex abuse," that the only
Catholic clergy-abuse case he knew about in the area
occurred more than 50 years ago and that the diocese
had never sent money to another diocese to settle a
molestation claim. A month later, however, a local newspaper
showed that Bishop Curlin had reassigned the Rev. Damion
Lynch in 1997 after paying a settlement to one victim's
family. The bishop then acknowledged that Father Lynch
had told him in 1995 of an "indiscretion" involving
the boy and had undergone psychological testing. The
priest was removed from ministry in 1998 after the victim's
parents sued, alleging that another son had also been
abused. In 2000, Bishop Curlin wrote a reference letter
for the Rev. Richard Farwell - who was seeking a job
with a Catholic charity in South Florida - even though
the previous year Father Farwell had been accused of
molesting a child two decades earlier. The bishop wrote
the recommendation after the diocese determined the
allegation was not credible, a spokeswoman said. The
allegation was recently reiterated, and Bishop Curlin
suspended Father Farwell, who was fired from the charity. |
Omaha,
Neb. |
ARCHBISHOP ELDEN CURTISS |
He has come under criminal investigation
in connection with a pending child-pornography possession
case against one of his priests and recently admitted
negligent supervision of another, the Rev. Daniel Herek,
who's been convicted of manufacturing pornography and
abusing an altar boy. Archbishop Curtiss has said he
took immediate action against Father Herek when pornographic
evidence first surfaced in 1997, but documents now emerging
in civil court show several prior warnings of inappropriate
behavior with children. The archbishop also suspended
a third man this spring, the Rev. Thomas Sellentin,
after the priest admitted molesting boys in parishes
years ago. A spokesman said the archbishop learned of
that abuse only recently, though another priest and
a former state Supreme Court judge said it was documented
decades ago. In mid-May, the chief prosecutor in Madison
County, Neb., said Archbishop Curtiss could face witness-tampering
charges because he sought the resignation of a Catholic
schoolteacher who'd told police that the Rev. Robert
Allgaier viewed child pornography at work. The district
attorney has since said he would not charge the archbishop.
Teacher Linda Hammond said the archbishop told her,
in the presence of others, "You shouldn't have done
this. We had it handled. You ruined a man's life." Archbishop
Curtiss has said he wasn't trying to sway testimony.
He has said that the priest was not accused of abusing
children and was deemed by experts not to be attracted
to them. Earlier, Madison County prosecutor Joe Smith
criticized the archbishop for not coming to authorities
when Father Allgaier admitted, in early 2001, that he
had been viewing child pornography. Instead, the archbishop
sent the priest to counseling and removed him from a
high school teaching job - then let him teach at a middle
school until his arrest in February In the late 1970s,
as leader of the Diocese of Helena, Mont., Bishop Curtiss
reassigned the Rev. Wilson Smart despite pedophilia
allegations that had first emerged in 1959; the bishop
later said he had failed to examine the priest's personnel
file. In 1993, Bishop Curtiss admitted that he later
removed letters documenting abuse from the file, acknowledged
"shortsightedness and misjudgment" and added: "There
has been a climate of silence on the part of priests
and people, but there can be no more." |
Brooklyn,
N.Y. |
BISHOP THOMAS DAILY |
In a 1991 letter to a bishop
in Venezuela, he endorsed the Rev. Enrique Diaz Jimenez for reassignment there - at a time when the priest faced
a 60-count molestation indictment in New York. The letter
referred to the criminal charges as "a very difficult
situation" but continued: "We have never had a single
problem, and everything we have to say is positive."
After the priest was convicted of abusing boys as young
as 6, sentenced to four months in jail and quickly deported
from the United States, he was allowed to return to
work as a priest in Venezuela, his home country. Father
Diaz was suspended there in the late 1990s, after 18
boys from a rural town reported abuse. He then moved
to Colombia and was sentenced to house arrest this year
for more crimes against children. Bishop Daily served
as an auxiliary bishop in Boston and took part in protecting
the Rev. John Geoghan after the priest admitted abuse;
he has since said he regrets those decisions. A spokesman
has defended the bishop's letter to his Venezuelan counterpart. |
Fort Worth,
Texas |
BISHOP JOSEPH DELANEY |
He employed the Rev. Thomas
Teczar in the late 1980s and early 1990s, after the
priest had been forced into pedophilia treatment by
his original diocese of Worcester, Mass., suspended
from ministry there and fined for contributing to the
delinquency of a minor. Bishop Delaney has said he didn't
know about Worcester diocesan files that documented
molestation allegations dating to the 1960s. Father
Teczar fled Texas in 1993 as criminal authorities investigated
two of his friends for abusing children. Bishop Delaney
initially said he thought the priest left because "he
decided he didn't want to be a priest in Texas any more,"
then subsequently admitted that he had known Father
Teczar was also a subject of the criminal investigation.
The priest's friends have since been sentenced to prison.
In the late 1980s, Bishop Delaney also hired an old
friend, the Rev. Philip Magaldi, who had been suspended
in his original diocese of Providence, R.I., for stealing
from a church. Rhode Island authorities said he used
some of the money for tropical vacations with adolescent
boys and once gave a teenager he met in a park enough
money to buy a car. Father Magaldi, who has denied wrongdoing,
served as chaplain of the Fort Worth diocesan scouting
program. Bishop Delaney no longer allows him to have
a public ministry. |
Honolulu,
Hawaii |
BISHOP FRANCIS DiLORENZO |
Kimberly Jenkins' two sons accused
Manuel Feliciano of molestation in 1998, leading to
criminal charges against the layman, who trained altar
servers. Mr. Feliciano pleaded guilty in 2000 and was
sentenced to a year in prison. In a lawsuit, the mother
has accused the diocese of failing to act in 1997 after
a boy from another family reported abuse by Mr. Feliciano.
The diocese's lawyer said that Bishop DiLorenzo and
other officials aren't at fault. In a counterclaim,
the diocese demands that Ms. Jenkins reimburse its attorneys'
fees, arguing that she was negligent in monitoring her
children because, among other things, she let them spend
the night at Mr. Feliciano's. |
Camden,
N.J. |
BISHOP NICHOLAS DiMARZIO |
Until early this year, he let
an admitted molester, the Rev. John P. Connor, work
as a hospital chaplain and live in two parish rectories.
When U.S. bishops began facing pressure to deal with
clergy abuse, Bishop DiMarzio removed Father Connor.
In 1984, the priest was charged with molesting a freshman
from the preparatory school where he served as a teacher
and coach. Father Connor had taken the boy on a camping
trip, given him beer and fondled him. Diocese lawyers
negotiated a deal in which he admitted guilt and agreed
to avoid trouble for one year in exchange for a clean
criminal record. After treatment in 1985, he moved to
the Pittsburgh Diocese and then to the Philadelphia
Archdiocese. (See more under that listing.) Some jobs
gave him unrestricted access to children. Father Connor
came back to the Camden Diocese in 1993. |
Sioux
City, Iowa |
BISHOP DANIEL DINARDO |
At least one of his accused
priests remained on duty as of early June. The Rev.
Gerald Hartz was charged in the mid-1990s with improperly
touching a 13-year-old girl at a Catholic school and
also accused by at least one woman of groping and kissing
her at church. The criminal case was dismissed after
he resigned as a parish priest; the woman's complaint
led to a civil suit that was dismissed. Father Hartz,
formerly a superintendent of Catholic schools, has worked
most recently as a nursing home chaplain. He has denied
wrongdoing. |
Rockford,
Ill. |
BISHOP THOMAS DORAN |
The family of three boys came
forward in late 1996 with allegations that the Rev.
Harlan Clapsaddle had molested them decades earlier.
"We were encouraged by the diocese to keep quiet," Kevin
Misslich recently told a Rockford television station.
"They assured us that they would handle the Clapsaddle
matter." In early 1997, the diocese removed Father Clapsaddle
from his parish and ordered treatment. When he finished,
he was put back to work, ministering in a nursing home.
He stepped down in May. Bishop Doran has said he "acted
responsibly" and stressed that Father Clapsaddle was
working in a "restricted setting." Nursing home officials
said they weren't told about the priest's past until
two days before he quit. |
Orlando,
Fla. |
BISHOP NORBERT DORSEY |
In interviews and court filings,
he said that he didn't know about molestation allegations
against the Rev. Arthur Bendixen until late 1993 and
that he suspended him a few months later. His account
has been contradicted by several people, including a
former priest who said he told Bishop Dorsey in 1992
about parishioners' complaints that Father Bendixen
was sleeping with a young boy while working in the Dominican
Republic. Bishop Dorsey has said he met with the former
priest, Charles Bard, but did not discuss such matters.
He called Mr. Bard's account "false and vindictive."
Father Bendixen, formerly a high-ranking administrator
at diocesan headquarters, also was accused in 1992 of
trying to seduce a teenage seminary student during a
trip to the Dominican Republic. At the time, the priest
was rector of the seminary. Three priests quit the school
after Bishop Dorsey took no action. Father Bendixen
has denied wrongdoing, while the diocese has paid several
out-of-court settlements to men who said he abused them
as boys. "Someone made the comment one time that they
wouldn't be happy until they saw me personally lead
this sinful criminal priest to be handcuffed," Bishop
Dorsey has said. "And I said, well, the situation is,
I would have to be handcuffed with him because we're
connected. He's a priest, and I'm the head of the church
here." Father Bendixen no longer functions as a priest;
he has been teaching recently at a Catholic university
in Chicago and running a center for homeless people. |
Boise,
Idaho |
BISHOP MICHAEL DRISCOLL |
In 1985, while he was a high-ranking
priest in southern California's Diocese of Orange, he
urged a counterpart in England to hire the Rev. Robert
Foley, who had undergone therapy for molesting an 8-year-old
boy on a campout. The child's mother "has threatened
to go to the police," he wrote. The priest "is in jeopardy
of arrest and possible imprisonment if he remains here."
Then-Monsignor Driscoll said in a deposition that Father
Foley admitted the abuse. The priest left town, and
the Orange Diocese did not respond to recent questions
about his whereabouts. After being promoted to an auxiliary
bishop post in the Orange Diocese, Bishop Driscoll received
several allegations of abuse by the Rev. Eleuterio Ramos but did nothing, according to lawsuits that the diocese
settled for undisclosed sums. Bishop Driscoll testified
that he had no direct knowledge about Father Ramos;
another priest contradicted his account. Father Ramos
admitted some sexual contact with altar boys, but was
allowed to transfer to a parish in the Diocese of Tijuana,
Mexico, where he worked until the mid-1990s. He is no
longer believed to be functioning as a priest. Bishop
Driscoll, who was promoted to the top job in Boise in
1999, recently told parishioners there that "what hurts
me most is the betrayal of the people's trust by some
priests." |
Springfield,
Mass. |
BISHOP THOMAS DUPRE |
The Rev. Bruce Teague says the
bishop's administration reprimanded him in 1997 when
he told police that a convicted child molester - the
Rev. Richard Lavigne - was hanging around his church.
Father Teague has said he got authorities to issue a
trespass order only after alerting diocesan leaders
and getting no response. At the time, Father Lavigne
was on probation, under church suspension and trying
to help hear children's confessions, Father Teague has
said. Bishop Dupre has said that Father Teague was not
punished for going to police. The bishop has also said
that his diocese is ahead of some others in dealing
with clergy sexual abuse, though he has at least two
previously accused men on the job. One is the Rev. Edward
M. Kennedy, who paid a secret settlement in the early
1990s to one accuser and was sent to a treatment center.
Father Kennedy celebrates Mass at some parishes on a
fill-in basis, serves as chaplain at a retirement center
and helps decide annulment cases at diocesan headquarters.
He recently told the Union-News of Springfield that
he was grateful for the therapy he'd received. The diocese
also sent him away to get a master's degree in church
law. Another accused priest, the Rev. Richard Meehan,
has been working as an archival researcher for the diocese.
Bishop Dupre also has been accused of not waiving confidentiality
agreements in civil settlements so that victims could
speak freely with criminal authorities. He has disputed
that charge |
New York,
N.Y. |
CARDINAL EDWARD EGAN |
In his previous post as bishop
in Bridgeport, Conn., he let some priests keep working
after they were accused of sexual abuse. In closed testimony
in a 1997 lawsuit, he expressed doubt about the veracity
of most allegations, saying that "very few have even
come close to having anyone prove anything." One priest
he supported was the Rev. Raymond Pcolka, who had been
accused as far back as 1966. Father Pcolka's alleged
victims included more than a dozen boys and girls -
some as young as 7 - who described being spanked and
forced into oral and anal sex. Cardinal Egan kept him
on the job until 1992, when another accuser came forward
and the priest refused orders to remain at a treatment
center. The diocese has since settled lawsuits against
Father Pcolka, who refused to answer lawyers' questions
during the litigation. Another priest protected by Cardinal
Egan was the Rev. Laurence Brett, who had first admitted
abuse in 1964 - biting a boy's genitals. After Cardinal
Egan became Bridgeport's bishop in the late 1980s, he
met Father Brett and endorsed him for continued ministry.
"In the course of our conversation," he wrote, "the
particulars of his case came out in detail and with
grace." Further accusations led to Father Brett's suspension
in 1993. In a recent letter to New York parishioners,
Cardinal Egan said his policy in Bridgeport was to do
a preliminary investigation of accused priests, then
send them for psychiatric evaluation and heed doctors'
advice. The Connecticut Postlater showed that the policy
wasn't followed in the case of the Rev. Walter Coleman,
who stayed on the job for more than a year after the
Bridgeport diocese concluded in early 1994 that he had
abused the son of a woman with whom he had an affair
and bought a house. In early June, the pope appointed
Cardinal Egan to the Vatican's highest court. In mid-May,
the Westchester County district attorney convened a
grand jury to investigate New York archdiocesan leaders'
handling of sex-abuse allegations. |
Miami,
Fla. |
ARCHBISHOP JOHN FAVALORA |
After a 1998 lawsuit accused
the Rev. Jan Malicki of trying to rape a girl and sexually
abusing a woman, the archbishop suspended him from parish
work and reassigned him to duty at a nursing home. The
priest refused the new job, his attorney has said, and
remains off the job. Father Malicki and the archdiocese
have asked a judge to order public identification of
the plaintiffs, who are anonymous in court filings but
whose names are known to the defense team. The archdiocese
made a similar demand in a lawsuit filed in April against
the Rev. Joseph Maroor, who is accused of seducing a
woman he counseled at a drug-treatment center. The plaintiffs'
attorneys have accused the Favalora administration of
trying to embarrass their clients into dropping the
cases and discourage other victims from coming forward.
The defendants have said fairness dictates that all
parties be identified publicly. Meanwhile, Archbishop
Favalora has been negotiating for months with local
prosecutors over how much information about accused
priests he will give them. He recently suspended two
previously accused priests, the Rev. Ricardo Castellanos and the Rev. Alvaro Guichard, after a new lawsuit alleged
that they forced an altar boy to take part in orgies
in the early 1970s. The two priests faced similar allegations
in the late 1970s, before Archbishop Favalora came to
Miami. That accuser later recanted. Father Castellanos
and Father Guichard have denied wrongdoing. |
Victoria,
Texas |
BISHOP DAVID FELLHAUER |
As a high-ranking Diocese of
Dallas official in the 1980s, he helped move the Rev.
Robert Peebles to different jobs after molestation complaints
were made. One transfer made him a military chaplain
in Georgia, where he sexually assaulted a boy. He was
sent back to Dallas to avoid a court martial and became
the diocesan scouting director. "We made the best decision
at the time in view of the circumstances," Bishop Fellhauer
told The Dallas Morning News in 1994. "There
are also matters of confidentiality and people's reputations."
Mr. Peebles was forced out of the priesthood in the
late 1980s after he acknowledged abusing other boys,
but he was not prosecuted. The diocese has paid millions
to his victims and also paid for him to get a law degree
in New Orleans. Bishop Fellhauer has acknowledged making
a mistake regarding Mr. Peebles. He has also testified
that as early as 1985 he had reports that boys were
spending the night with the Rev. Rudy Kos, who is now
imprisoned for life for sexually assaulting boys in
the Dallas diocese. But during the trial of several
Kos victims' civil suit - which ended in the largest
clergy-abuse verdict in history - the bishop told jurors
that he didn't suspect abuse. "It was obvious he had
a ministry to young people," the bishop testified. "He
was good with them." |
Galveston-Houston,
Texas |
BISHOP JOSEPH FIORENZA |
In the late 1970s and early
1980s, as bishop of San Angelo in West Texas, he employed
a priest who'd been forced from three other dioceses
because of molestation accusations. Bishop Fiorenza
wrote in a 1982 letter that he knew of the Rev. David
Holley's "past difficulties" and stated: "With our shortage
of priests, I am willing to risk incardinating him"
- formally making him a priest of the Diocese of San
Angelo. In 1997, when The Dallas Morning News
obtained that letter and the rest of Father Holley's
personnel file, Bishop Fiorenza refused interview requests.
He recently told The Houston Chronicle, through
a spokesman, that he hadn't known about the priest's
pedophilia when he employed him and that the "past difficulties"
reference was to "poor people skills." Later, the bishop
added that the reference also covered "problems with
alcohol" - something that is not in the personnel file.
Father Holley is now imprisoned for molesting boys in
New Mexico, where he served before coming to Texas.
After going to the Galveston-Houston diocese in the
mid-1980s, Bishop Fiorenza transferred the Rev. Noe
Guzman to another parish after the priest was caught
sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. The bishop has
said he delegated the matter to an assistant, who has
testified that he accepted Father Guzman's characterization
of the girl as a "precocious child who came on to him."
The woman who caught the priest has said that the assistant
urged her not to cooperate with police. The assault
came to light after Father Guzman impregnated a church
secretary; he served a short jail term. |
Superior,
Wis. |
BISHOP RAPHAEL FLISS |
As second in command of the
diocese in the mid-1980s, he persuaded authorities to
let the church handle a parent's allegations that the
Rev. David Malsch had touched his 14-year-old son and
offered the boy $10 for oral sex. "I didn't want to
have a lot of scandal," the bishop testified years later.
Over the next seven years, Father Malsch was sent on
a series of treatment stops and was transferred to parishes
where he had contact with children. After a mother came
forward in 1991, police began investigating allegations
that Father Malsch had molested a 14-year-old boy with
learning disabilities and had given him X-rated videos.
Bishop Fliss, by then head of the diocese, suspended
the priest and ordered more treatment. Two years later,
Father Malsh pleaded no contest to one count of child
enticement, but denied other accusations against him,
including that he had offered two brothers liquor and
had repeatedly molested them over a five-year span.
After violating terms of his probation, Father Malsch
was sent to prison for nearly two years. He now stays
in a Missouri facility, where he was civilly committed.
Bishop Fliss acknowledged in April that he had mishandled
the case. |
San Antonio,
Texas |
ARCHBISHOP PATRICK FLORES |
As an auxiliary bishop in San
Antonio in the 1970s, he helped Xavier Ortiz-Dietz become
a priest despite poor performance in three Mexican seminaries.
One of the schools sent a report concluding that the
student suffered from "marked sexual conflict, ... obsessive
manias, pronounced paranoid characteristics, delusions
of grandeur..." In 1998, the archdiocese paid about
$4 million to seven victims of the priest, who has been
imprisoned. Two women gave sworn statements saying that
they alerted the archdiocese of possible abuse in the
1980s; Archbishop Flores' attorney has said he was not
warned. In the late 1990s, the archbishop testified
in a deposition that the priest remained "fit for certain
ministries" despite his criminal conviction. In the
late 1980s, meanwhile, Archbishop Flores settled a lawsuit
over alleged molestation by the Rev. Federico Fernandez.
He has said he didn't remember an earlier complaint
from a man who warned that he had seen the priest naked
in a swimming pool with two young girls. Father Fernandez
was also criminally charged in the late 1980s, but the
case was dismissed at the request of an alleged victim. |
St. Paul-Minneapolis,
Minn. |
ARCHBISHOP HARRY FLYNN |
As bishop of the Lafayette,
La., Diocese, he was credited with cleaning up one of
the nation's earliest clergy abuse scandals in the 1980s.
That record, in part, led to his April appointment as
chairman of a key bishops' committee that drafted the
proposed national policy on handling clergy sex abuse.
But since 1995, Archbishop Flynn has allowed at least
five accused priests - three who remain active - to
continue working in the Twin Cities despite past lawsuits
or criminal charges against them. Although the Rev.
Gil Gustafson pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting
a young boy in the 1970s and spent six months in a workhouse,
he has been celebrating Mass four times a week at a
monastery and serving as an administrative aide. The
Rev. Michael Stevens pleaded guilty in the late 1980s
to sexual misconduct with a minor, and he has been working
in the archdiocese's computer department. Archbishop
Flynn defended his decisions to keep them employed,
as well the Rev. Joseph Wada, who was accused in lawsuits
of abusing teenage boys. "None of the three are in positions,
now, in which children may be harmed," he said. Early
in his tenure, the archbishop kept the Rev. Robert Kapoun on duty despite claims that he had molested four boys.
After a jury in 1996 awarded more than $1 million to
one victim, the archdiocese announced that Father Kapoun,
dubbed the Polka Priest for his use of the music in
Masses, had agreed to step down. An appeals court later
overturned the decision, saying the victim had waited
too long to come forward. |
Birmingham,
Ala. |
BISHOP DAVID FOLEY
|
After taking over in 1994, he
kept the Rev. Charles V. Cross in his diocese job and
let him celebrate Mass - although previous bishops had
received complaints of abuse by him and ordered him
into treatment. Bishop Foley suspended Father Cross
in early May, a month after a story in the Decatur
(Ala.) Daily recounted allegations against the priest.
Bishop Foley said he acted after more victims came forward
with "substantial and credible" complaints. Father Cross
has denied the allegations but agreed to retire in June.
In a 1995 lawsuit, Robert Wilford accused Father Cross
of repeatedly molesting, sodomizing and beating him
when he was a teenager in the 1960s - and alleged that
the priest had confessed to church officials. A judge
later dismissed the case because the claims were too
old. Father Cross said the suit was financially motivated.
Mr. Wilford had taken his complaints to the diocese
in 1993 - eight years after Father Cross was ordered
to undergo treatment because of other misconduct claims
- but then-Bishop Raymond Boland kept Father Cross in
his administrative job at diocese headquarters (see
the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo. Diocese). At the time
of the priest's suspension, Father Cross was living
at a Birmingham church facility. |
Jefferson
City, Mo. |
BISHOP JOHN GAYDOS |
He was one of the bishops who
remained silent in 1999 as Anthony O'Connell was promoted
from bishop of the Knoxville, Tenn., Diocese to the
much larger one in Palm Beach, Fla. The Diocese of Jefferson
City had paid a $125,000 out-of-court settlement in
1996 to a seminarian who Bishop O'Connell abused during
the 1970s. Bishop Gaydos also let the Rev. Manus Daly stay on duty until this spring, even though the diocese
was told in 1996 that he had also abused Bishop O'Connell's
victim. Bishop O'Connell - who took over in Florida
for another admitted molester, Bishop J. Keith Symons
- has resigned. The Jefferson City Diocese's failure
to speak up about Bishop O'Connell was "a travesty,"
said Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Gaydos recently closed the
Missouri seminary where Bishop O'Connell and Father
Daly abused the student. He also suspended another priest,
the Rev. Don Wallace, whom he'd kept on the job since
four altar boys complained in 1997 about inappropriate
touching. Bishop Gaydos serves on the abuse committee
of the bishops conference. |
Chicago,
Ill. |
CARDINAL FRANCIS GEORGE |
He is facing allegations that
the archdiocese had protected several priests with histories
of abuse. The cardinal removed a former top aide, the
Rev. R. Peter Bowman, from a parish. in late May. That
was a month after a man accused the priest of molesting
him many years ago - and at least a year after the archdiocese
dismissed another complaint against Father Bowman because,
in a church spokesman's words, it involved merely "horseplay
that could have been misinterpreted." This spring, Cardinal
George suspended a priest who had been a top aide to
his predecessor, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. The Rev.
Robert Kealy had remained a pastor after being accused
last year of abusing a teenager in the 1970s, then was
removed in March after more information surfaced. He
used to help Cardinal Bernardin handle abuse allegations
against colleagues. Neither he nor Father Bowman has
responded publicly. A third priest accused in April
of abuse in the 1960s remained on the job for more than
a month; the church spokesman said internal investigations
have lagged because so many complaints are emerging.
There are also allegations of recent abuse and archdiocesan
misconduct. One lawsuit, for example, has charged that
the archdiocese knew three years ago that the Rev. Walter
Strus was sexually harassing parishioners but let him
keep working. Father Strus has since fathered a child
with a Polish immigrant, who has accused him of raping
her and pressuring her to have an abortion. He has denied
the allegations. "We had no indication of [the priest's]
propensity for sexual assault," the church spokesman
said. Another recent scandal involves the Rev. Sleeva
Raju Policetti, who fled to his native India in May
after being accused of abusing a girl. Church officials
waited two days after learning of the allegation to
call criminal authorities, who "advised us not to confront
him ... until they had the chance to gather more information
and question him," the spokesman said. "Somehow he found
out ... anyway, and he left the country." |
Portland,
Maine |
BISHOP JOSEPH GERRY |
A 1990 letter from one alleged
victim of the Rev. Raymond Melville begged Bishop Gerry
to "please stop this from happening again." The bishop
pledged "to address the matter vigorously and expeditiously."
He put Father Melville in therapy for a few months,
then moved him to another parish. While there, according
to a pending lawsuit, the priest continued to molest
a teenager whom he'd started abusing years before. Father
Melville, who hasn't commented publicly, was sent to
one more church before leaving the ministry in 1997.
A diocesan spokeswoman recently said his departure had
nothing to do with abuse allegations. But last year,
a former spokesman said the priest had quit after refusing
further treatment. The spokeswoman also said the diocese's
new "zero tolerance" policy would prevent someone similarly
accused from returning to a parish. Until it was implemented
this year, at least two admitted abusers remained on
the job: the Rev. Michael Doucette, for whom the diocese
paid a confidential settlement a decade ago; and the
Rev. John Audibert, a victim of whose spoke out publicly
as long ago as 1993. |
Evansville,
Ind. |
BISHOP GERALD GETTELFINGER |
He told parishioners in late
March that priests who sexually abuse children are guilty
of "grave sins" that he would not tolerate. At the time,
his spokesman would not say whether any complaints had
been referred to criminal authorities or whether any
priests had been removed. Shortly afterward, news accounts
detailed the backgrounds of three men who were working
as pastors in the diocese: the Rev. Jean Vogler, who
spent 10 months in federal prison in the 1990s on a
child pornography conviction; the Rev. Michael Allen,
who admitted that in 1974 he initiated a series of sexual
encounters with a 16-year-old boy who was hospitalized
for depression; and the Rev. Mark Kurzendoerfer, who
was transferred to a different teaching job in 1981
after being accused of abusing a 14-year-old student.
Soon after coming to Evansville in 1989, Bishop Gettelfinger
ordered Father Kurzendoerfer not to have a youth ministry
- although he let him work at a parish with a school.
In May, the bishop suspended the priest and sent him
to counseling, saying that he had been violating the
order, in part by having private counseling sessions
with 11-year-old students. Parents and the school principal
had not been told about the restriction. Bishop Gettelfinger
acknowledged that he had also sent Father Kurzendoerfer
into "extensive therapy" after he admitted soliciting
a 17-year-old in 1998. The young man then identified
himself to the Evansville Courier & Press
as the priest's nephew. Meanwhile, Father Vogler and
Father Allen have remained on the job. Bishop Gettelfinger
has been publicly supportive of Father Allen, saying
he didn't think anyone was at risk. "The people have
come to love him because of his pastoral gifts, his
ministering to his people, his presence to his people,
the attention given to them," the bishop said. "He really
has been the priestly leader that they were looking
for, yearning for, and now have." |
Raleigh,
N.C. |
BISHOP F. JOSEPH GOSSMAN |
He suspended the Rev. Thomas
Watkins from a parish this spring after a man alleged
that he had been repeatedly sexually harassed by the
priest while a college seminary student in Ohio many
years ago. Father Watkins had been accused of inappropriate
contact with three other people during Bishop Gossman's
27-year tenure, but the diocese would not elaborate.
Father Watkins has denied the allegations. Several years
ago, Bishop Gossman employed the Rev. Joseph LaForge after the priest was charged in New Jersey with helping
a cleric accused of child molestation to flee the country.
Father LaForge admitted giving $5,000 in church funds
to the Rev. Florencio Tumang, but said he had no idea
the priest would flee. Charges against Father LaForge
were dismissed after he completed a pretrial intervention
program for first-time offenders. He has since died;
Father Tumang remains a fugitive. |
Dallas,
Texas |
BISHOP CHARLES GRAHMANN |
His diocese was found liable
for conspiracy in 1997 after covering up years of abuse
by the Rev. Rudy Kos; jurors assessed the largest clergy-abuse
verdict in history. Bishop Grahmann had let Mr. Kos
keep working in the early 1990s after the priest ignored
repeated orders to stop letting boys sleep over at church
residences. The bishop testified that "there was no
reason" to remove Mr. Kos in spring 1992 after a social
worker who specializes in child abuse said Mr. Kos sounded
like a "textbook pedophile." Bishop Grahmann also refused
experts' requests to test whether Mr. Kos was aroused
by pictures of children, saying he had "moral problems"
with the procedure. After jurors returned their verdict,
the bishop did not stay in the courtroom to hear a statement
they had written that said, in part, "Please admit your
guilt." A top aide who did hear the statement said he
didn't know how to respond to it, explaining that "I
don't know what 'admit your guilt' is." Mr. Kos has
since been defrocked, convicted of criminal charges
and sent to prison. In a recent interview, Bishop Grahmann
gave this assessment of the pedophile priest scandal:
"Bishops are accused of covering up and moving people
from one parish to another. That's a bunch of bull." |
Columbus,
Ohio |
BISHOP JAMES GRIFFIN |
He recently said that some priests
who've been treated for sexual misconduct - he wouldn't
identify them - remain on the job but not in parishes.
Yet Bishop Griffin also acknowledged that he had put
the Rev. Joseph Fete in a pastor's job last year, after
earlier removing him from another church, sending him
to treatment and paying a settlement to a victim who
was molested for years in the late 1970s. Monsignor
Fete, who admitted the abuse, recently was put in charge
of the diocese's newly created office of ecumenical
affairs. Bishop Griffin also acknowledged that the Rev.
Phillip Jacobs had been allowed to transfer to a church
in Victoria, British Columbia, after being accused of
molestation in 1994. The bishop said he sent Father
Jacobs into therapy for "improper sexual touching" of
a boy. |
Dubuque,
Iowa |
ARCHBISHOP JEROME HANUS |
In 2000, he kept the Rev. Michael
Fitzgerald on duty for weeks at a rural parish after
the diocese was shown evidence that the priest had traded
sexually suggestive e-mails with and arranged to meet
a 13-year-old boy - who turned out to actually be an
investigator working for a private child-protection
group. After criminal authorities were notified, Archbishop
Hanus suspended Father Fitzgerald and sent him to an
out-of-state treatment center, which police said stymied
their investigation. The archbishop later said he expected
to return the priest to his parish. He dropped that
idea after an allegation was made that Father Fitzgerald
had molested an adolescent from the church. The priest
died in a car crash last year while training near Chicago
to be a hospital chaplain. |
Norwich,
Conn. |
BISHOP DANIEL HART |
A lawsuit accuses him of ignoring
several warning signs that could have stopped the Rev.
Richard Buongirno from continuing to assault a young
boy. The abuse allegedly began in the early 1990s, when
the child was 9. State officials were notified through
an anonymous complaint, but they stopped investigating
because the boy denied being abused. State and diocese
officials never questioned the priest, according to
the plaintiff's lawyer. In 1994, a second allegation
of abuse, made by a man, surfaced against Father Buongirno.
The cleric admitted to it, leading the bishop at the
time to suspend him and order him into treatment. After
Bishop Hart arrived in 1995, he reviewed Father Buongirno's
file and returned him to ministry, sometimes around
children. Within a few years, Father Buongirno had allegedly
begun again abusing the boy, who was by then a teen-ager.
The abuse was discovered after parish workers learned
the boy was on an out-of-state trip with Father Buongirno;
the priest had told colleagues he was traveling with
an adult. The boy shared details with a counselor and
police, who arrested Father Buongirno in 1999. Father
Buongirno pleaded not guilty, and the charges were later
dropped because of statutes of limitation. He has since
left the priesthood. Bishop Hart's lawyer said the bishop
had reinstated the priest after a treatment clinic had
given its approval. But records obtained by The Hartford
Courant show that the diocese did not tell the center
all the allegations against Father Buongirno. |
Lafayette,
Ind. |
BISHOP WILLIAM L. HIGI |
Indianapolis newspapers concluded
in a 1997 series that Bishop Higi had concealed knowledge
of several abusers and returned some to ministry. One
example: the Rev. Ron Voss, who got therapy after being
accused of fondling teenagers in the late 1980s and
was transferred to Haiti, where he sometimes worked
with young people. When fellow priests complained, one
of the bishop's aides ordered them to "cease from jeopardizing
the name and reputation of Ron Voss." Father Voss resigned
from ministry in 1993 but continued to identify himself
as a priest in the Caribbean island nation. Church officials
have said Father Voss regrets his past behavior and
has changed. Bishop Higi initially called the newspaper's
reporting "a product of clever spins and a preconceived
agenda." Later, though, he hired a sexual-abuse counseling
expert to investigate allegations and acknowledged that
the news reports "found me and my predecessors deficient." |
Toledo,
Ohio |
BISHOP JAMES HOFFMAN |
The Rev. Robert J. Fisher spent
30 days in jail after pleading guilty in 1988 to molesting
a 14-year-old girl from his own parish. After four years
of church-ordered therapy Father Fisher was found fit
to return and Bishop Hoffman appointed him pastor at
a another parish. In March, as the clergy abuse crisis
spread nationally, the diocese acknowledged that he
remained on the job, but it didn't name him or his parish
publicly. At the same time, officials said two other
unnamed priests, who were described as having been involved
in "improprieties" with adults or older teens, also
were still active. Bishop Hoffman suspended Father Fisher
in May, to the displeasure of some parishioners. He
cited "the media climate" in the country as a factor
in his decision, but said he had no plans to remove
others. Later that month, he said, "My difficulty with
zero tolerance is that the gospel teaches reconciliation.
We believe in forgiveness." |
Albany,
N.Y. |
BISHOP HOWARD HUBBARD |
From the mid-1980s until April,
he allowed an admitted molester, the Rev. David Bentley,
to work in Africa and elsewhere outside the diocese.
Because no new complaints surfaced, the Albany Diocese
said, Bishop Hubbard let Father Bentley serve for the
last few years at a parish in Deming, N.M., which is
part of the Las Cruces Diocese. (See more under that
listing.) The priest has received therapy but has never
faced criminal charges. Bishop Hubbard also let at least
three other priests work as hospital chaplains after
they got treatment for sexual misconduct; they include
the Rev. Mark Haight and the Rev. James Hanley, who
was from the Diocese of Paterson, N.J. (See more under
that listing.) The Albany Diocese says it has ended
a practice of reassigning molesters to hospitals. As
of early June, the bishop had not answered questions
about whether other accused priests remained on duty. |
New Orleans,
La. |
ARCHBISHOP ALFRED HUGHES |
As an aide to Boston Cardinal
Bernard Law, he received a complaint in 1991 that the
Rev. John Geoghan was having "inappropriate" conversations
with young boys at a Massachusetts swimming pool. He
responded by telling Father Geoghan to stay away from
the pool. The priest had previously been treated for
pedophilia but was allowed to stay on the job. He was
recently convicted of fondling a boy - at the same pool
in 1991. In New Orleans, where Archbishop Hughes has
served for a little more than a year, he recently suspended
at least two priests because of abuse allegations that
were already in personnel files; the men were not publicly
identified. The archbishop also apologized for Catholic
leaders' handling of predatory clerics. "Our action
or inaction failed to protect the innocents among us,
the children," he wrote. "I ask forgiveness." |
Joliet,
Ill. |
BISHOP JOSEPH IMESCH |
Bishop Imesch has transferred
at least four accused priests inside his diocese without
alerting parishioners. And he has brought in a convicted
child molester, the Rev. Gary Berthiaume, who had served
as an associate pastor under him at a Detroit church
years ago (see more under the Cleveland Diocese listing).
The Chicago Tribune recently reported that in 1980,
early in Bishop Imesch's career in Joliet, the diocese
moved the Rev. Lawrence Gibbs while he was under criminal
investigation and refused to tell investigators where
he was. The bishop told parents whose children had been
interviewed in the case that authorities had found no
evidence to charge Father Gibbs, who got a new parish
and allegedly molested again. He has since left the
priesthood. Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of St. Louis
recently removed two priests it had accepted from Joliet,
the Rev. Fred Lenczycki and the Rev. J. Anthony Meis,
saying that Bishop Imesch had not disclosed past allegations
against them when recommending them for transfers. The
bishop has denied that assertion. In recent months,
he has said that some people aren't traumatized by sexual
abuse and that some priests who molest adolescents should
be allowed back into ministry after therapy. But in
late May, he changed course and said he would support
a "zero tolerance" policy if the nation's bishops approve
it in Dallas this week. "I am sorry for any pain I have
caused victims, their families, parishioners and others,"
he wrote. "I feel that some of the criticisms directed
at me were harsh, but I hope that I have learned from
them." |
Alexandria,
La. |
BISHOP SAM JACOBS
|
He sent the Rev. John Andries
to therapy and then back to a parish after a 1998 incident
of alleged fondling, which wasn't prosecuted. In May,
Father Andries was charged with sexual battery, accused
of touching and masturbating onto a sleeping boy in
2001. The boy's parents said they had invited the priest
to spend the night at their rural home without knowing
about the 1998 matter. The parents also said that when
they reported the incident to Bishop Jacobs, he told
them that Father Andries wasn't supposed to be around
children. "If he wasn't supposed to be around kids,
what are you doing putting him back in the church parish?"
the family's attorney, Anthony Fontana, has asked. The
priest has pleaded not guilty. |
Houma-Thibodaux,
La. |
BISHOP MICHAEL JARRELL |
The bishop let the Rev. Robert
Melancon continue working in a parish after paying one
of his victims $30,000 in 1993. Another victim came
forward in 1995, saying that he had been raped repeatedly
in a church rectory in the 1980s - the first time when
he was 8 years old. Father Melancon has since been convicted
in that case and sentenced to life in prison. Before
the trial, the district attorney said he would seek
to have Bishop Jarrell held in contempt of court for
refusing to say whether church authorities were investigating
other complaints of sexual abuse against priests. The
bishop then answered that they had not. One of his former
top aides, the Rev. Albert Bergeron, pleaded guilty
to lying to a grand jury investigating Father Melancon.
Two of Father Melancon's accusers have testified that
they sometimes met him at Monsignor Bergeron's rectory,
where there was a supply of pornography. |
Baltimore,
Md. |
CARDINAL WILLIAM KEELER |
He put the Rev. Maurice Blackwell
back to work in 1993 after police dropped a molestation
investigation. A panel Cardinal Keeler had appointed
to review such matters criticized the reinstatement,
saying that the accusations against the priest were
"consistent and credible." Father Blackwell was suspended
again in 1998 after admitting sexual abuse of a minor
that predated the 1993 case. The 1993 accuser, Dontee
Stokes, was charged this spring with shooting and seriously
wounding the priest. Afterward Cardinal Keeler acknowledged
that the 1993 accusation had been credible, saying he
regretted his earlier decision and apologized for the
first time to victims of clergymen, The detective who
investigated at the time was constrained by prosecutors,
according to records obtained by The Washington Post.
An unidentified prosecutor's notes say: "Priest known
to prey on young boys. [The detective is] trying to
pressure me into letting him speak with the priest.
... I reiterated no arrest and no talking to priest."
Cardinal Keeler also has long let the Rev. Michael Spillane
work for a group that advises the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops on worship practices. The cardinal's
spokesman said that Father Spillane was barred in 1991
from celebrating Mass, after he admitted molesting six
boys and that the advisory group was notified. The organization's
chairman said he hadn't been advised. The priest is
set to retire this year, the chairman said. |
Louisville,
Ky. |
ARCHBISHOP THOMAS KELLY |
He settled claims in 1990 and
1999 that alleged abuse by the Rev. Louis Miller many
years earlier, but kept him on the job until this spring.
Archbishop Kelly's spokesman said that Father Miller,
who has denied wrongdoing, was not allowed to work with
children. "I have been in church administration positions
for 40 years, and 30 years ago I didn't know anything
about this problem," the archbishop recently said. "We
knew there were some moral lapses, but we treated them
as, you go on a retreat, you come back and maybe go
on a different assignment." As of early June, the archdiocese
faced more than 100 lawsuits, several of which name
Father Miller. Among the specific allegations against
him: that he masturbated in a confessional while an
8-year-old boy described being sexually abused by a
stranger. That accuser, now an adult, said the priest
also asked him whether he had been aroused during the
assault. |
Nashville,
Tenn. |
BISHOP EDWARD KMIEC |
He has been accused in a lawsuit
of failing to act after learning in the mid- to late
1990s that a suspended pedophile priest was continuing
to socialize with boys at a church and a Catholic school.
Therapists had warned the diocese in writing that the
Rev. Edward McKeown should be kept away from adolescents.
Father McKeown gained temporary custody of a troubled
teen in the late 1990s, then later was charged with
raping him and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Bishop
Kmiec has acknowledged giving parishioners a "misleading"
statement about how many times his predecessor was warned
about the priest before suspending him. The bishop's
spokesman has also insisted that, over the years, the
diocese has done its best to deal with Father McKeown. |
Boston, Mass. |
CARDINAL BERNARD LAW |
His record of protecting pedophile
priests - in Boston and his previous diocese in Missouri
- has made headlines around the world in recent months,
fueling numerous lawsuits and demands for his resignation.
In the 1990s, Cardinal Law and his aides helped the
Rev. Paul Shanley get jobs in other dioceses despite
psychiatric advice that he was dangerous and reports
that he had publicly advocated sex between men and boys.
Church officials in New York and California say the
Boston archdiocese withheld this information from them.
Cardinal Law also repeatedly reassigned the Rev. John
Geoghan through many years of molestation complaints,
letting him work until the early 1990s. Mr. Geoghan
has since been convicted on molestation charges and
sent to prison. Father Shanley is under indictment and
has pleaded not guilty. In 1998, after defrocking Mr.
Geoghan, Cardinal Law reassigned the Rev. Ronald H.
Paquin to a hospital chaplain job. At that point, according
to documents obtained by The Boston Globe, the
archdiocese already knew of more than a dozen complaints
from boys who accused the priest of molestation and
rape - and had reached financial settlements with some
of them. Father Paquin has been suspended and indicted;
he has pleaded not guilty. One priest who assisted in
his reassignment was the Rev. C. Melvin Surette - who
had been removed from a parish in the mid-1990s after
the diocese settled several cases that alleged that
he and yet another priest abused boys in a ministry
for troubled teens. Earlier, as the bishop leading the
Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo., diocese, Cardinal Law
transferred an accused priest to several parishes in
the early 1980s after misconduct complaints arose (see
more under that diocese's listing). And before he was
in Missouri, the cardinal was a high-ranking priest
in the Diocese of Jackson, Miss. - and there he also
helped two priests stay in parish jobs after abuse accusations,
according to his recent deposition testimony. One was
George Broussard, whom a witness has identified as a
close friend of Cardinal Law since the two attended
seminary together in Ohio. Mr. Broussard has left the
priesthood and declined to comment. |
Springfield-Cape
Girardeau, Mo. |
BISHOP JOHN LEIBRECHT |
When the diocese received a
letter in alleging that the Rev. Amel Shibley had molested
a boy in the 1980s, the priest admitted it was true.
Bishop Leibrecht let him stay on. But when a second
letter levying charges against Father Shibley arrived
in 1995, the priest was asked to step down. Two years
later, however, Bishop Leibrecht offered the priest
part-time work. The arrangement lasted until March,
when Bishop Leibrecht changed the diocese's approach
to claims of sexual abuse by clergy. He again dismissed
Father Shibley to "make sure everybody understands how
serious we are taking this." The bishop has also employed
another priest, the Rev. Leonard Chambers, who was accused
in the 1980s of abuse. The man leading the diocese at
that time - Cardinal Bernard Law, who is now in Boston
- sent Father Chambers to treatment and then assigned
him to two parishes. When Bishop Leibrecht took over
in 1984, he kept Father Chambers with conditions. In
1998, the priest was found alone with a minor, and Bishop
Leibrecht sought his retirement. The bishop said the
incident didn't involve sexual misconduct. |
San Francisco,
Calif. |
ARCHBISHOP WILLIAM LEVADA |
The Rev. John Conley told diocese
officials and authorities nearly five years ago that
he had walked in on a colleague straddling a kneeling
15-year-old altar boy in a dark rectory room. A few
months later, Father Conley was placed on administrative
leave. He has filed a lawsuit that accuses Archbishop
Levada of retaliating against him for reporting the
other priest, the Rev. James Aylward, to police. The
archdiocese has denied any wrongdoing, and Father Aylward
described the November 1997 incident as "horseplay and
wrestling." During a meeting with Archbishop Levada
in late 1997, Father Conley, a former federal prosecutor,
tried to record a conversation as directed by his lawyer.
But the archbishop refused and, when Father Conley persisted,
accused him of insubordination. Father Conley was then
put on leave, a move the church said was unrelated.
He remains on leave. As for Father Aylward, police said
they could not find sufficient evidence for charges,
and a church inquiry ruled his behavior inappropriate
but not sexual. Father Aylward continued to deny wrongdoing
until 2000, when he admitted during a deposition to
a history of touching boys, including wrestling with
them for sexual pleasure. After the deposition, Father
Aylward was placed on leave from his parish job, and
later that year, the archdiocese paid a plaintiff $750,000. |
Bridgeport,
Conn. |
BISHOP WILLIAM LORI |
Until April, he allowed two
priests to work despite long-standing molestation allegations.
The Rev. Stanley Koziol and the Rev. Gregory Smith both
acknowledged misconduct. The two priests were among
seven who hired an attorney in the mid-1990s, before
Bishop Lori came to town, and prevented plaintiffs'
attorneys from obtaining their personnel files. Three
of the seven remained on the job this spring and have
never been publicly identified, The Hartford Courant
reported. "The evil of sexual abuse of minors calls
for a radically new approach," Bishop Lori said recently.
He is a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
abuse committee. |
Springfield,
Ill. |
BISHOP GEORGE LUCAS |
He has allowed his predecessor,
Bishop Daniel Ryan, to celebrate Mass and preside at
funerals, despite accusations of sex with teenage boy
prostitutes and priests that preceded his early retirement
in 1999. A former altar boy has filed a lawsuit alleging
that such activity created an atmosphere of tolerance
for the child molestation he suffered at the hands of
the Rev. Alvin Campbell, who served several years in
prison for abuse. Bishop Ryan has denied any sexual
misconduct. Bishop Lucas recently wrote that he knew
of no credible evidence of abuse by any active clergy
in the Springfield Diocese. |
St. Petersburg,
Fla. |
BISHOP ROBERT LYNCH |
This spring, as police hunted
for the Rev. Robert Schaeufele, the bishop refused to
give prosecutors information about church officials'
recent questioning of the priest. Father Schaeufele
resigned from a parish in April and moved out of state
after the diocese confronted him with abuse allegations.
Officers found him in Michigan and charged him with
sexually battering two 11-year-old boys in the 1980s.
A diocesan attorney has said Father Schaeufele admitted
he "crossed boundaries" with minors. Last year, the
diocese paid $100,000 to its former spokesman to settle
claims that Bishop Lynch had sexually harassed him.
The bishop characterized the payment as a severance
package. The former spokesman, Bill Urbanski, said he
initially appreciated Bishop Lynch's lavish gifts -
stereos, cameras, upscale clothes. But he began to feel
increasingly uncomfortable when Bishop Lynch would touch
and massage him, or would walk around naked in their
hotel room during trips. Bishop Lynch described the
matter as a misunderstanding: "I did not intend anything.
We were close friends." A diocesan investigation, led
by three close Lynch aides, found no evidence to back
Mr. Urbanski's allegations of advances. Mr. Urbanski
said investigators never interviewed him. |
Los Angeles,
Calif. |
CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY |
More than 30 current and former
archdiocesan priests are under criminal investigation,
and the district attorney has said he would call Cardinal
Mahony before a grand jury unless he divulges his files
on them; he has vowed to cooperate. One of the cases
involves the Rev. Michael Stephen Baker, who admitted
to the cardinal in 1986 that he had molested boys but
was kept on the job, in several parishes, until 2000.
The cardinal later approved a confidential $1.3 million
settlement with two of Father Baker's victims who say
they were abused as recently as 1999. "I offer my sincere,
personal apologies for my failure to take firm and decisive
action much earlier," Cardinal Mahony recently wrote
to the priests he supervises. Father Baker is accused
of molesting boys, some as young as 5, from 1976 to
1999. In another case, the archdiocese let the Rev.
G. Neville Rucker remain in the ministry until this
year despite abuse allegations that first surfaced 35
years ago and led to an out-of-court settlement of a
1993 lawsuit. Father Rucker's alleged victims included
9-year-old girls; he has denied wrongdoing. In the early
1980s, when he was bishop of Stockton, Calif., Cardinal
Mahony moved the Rev. Oliver O'Grady to various parishes.
During a civil trial, the cardinal said he didn't know
about Father O'Grady's abuse, but his testimony was
contradicted by a psychiatrist he had hired to evaluate
the priest. Father O'Grady was later sent to prison,
and Cardinal Mahony's dealings with him have become
the subject of a federal racketeering lawsuit. |
Detroit,
Mich. |
CARDINAL ADAM MAIDA |
This year, the archdiocese gave
local prosecutors the names of 51 clerics accused of
abuse over the years and disclosed that four, whom it
would not identify, remained on the job. Prosecutor
Carl Marlinga of Macomb County, in suburban Detroit,
said that keeping the priests active let the church
and clerics "benefit from the cover-up they've engaged
in for so long." Cardinal Maida's spokesman said an
internal review determined that the allegations weren't
credible and that none of the four was working in Macomb
County, so "it shouldn't be a concern to the Macomb
County prosecutor." Two other priests, whose conduct
had led to secret cash settlements, remained at work
until this spring. The Rev. Walter Lezuchowski, for
example, was barred from working in churches after the
archdiocese concluded in the early 1990s that he had
abused a girl. In early May, Cardinal Maida's spokesmen
said he was still on restricted duty, then acknowledged
the next day that Father Lezuchowski had been serving
at a church for the last five years. The spokesmen said
they couldn't explain the situation. Father Lezuchowski
has since been removed from ministry after prosecutors
said they had received a criminal complaint against
him, alleging abuse that occurred before he was sent
to treatment in the early 1990s. In March, before the
controversies arose, Cardinal Maida acknowledged that
"some priests - even bishops - have betrayed the trust
of the people." He added: "I apologize for their mistakes." |
Buffalo,
N.Y. |
BISHOP HENRY MANSELL |
In 1986, as a high-ranking personnel
administrator for the Archdiocese of New York, he encouraged
a colleague who had been treated for pedophilia and
barred from working with children to seek a promotion.
"The future is bright with promise," he wrote to the
Rev. Edward Pipala, who got to lead his own parish two
years later. Mr. Pipala has since served seven years
in prison for molestation and no longer works as a priest.
In Buffalo, Bishop Mansell has refused to identify accused
priests to police. State law doesn't require him to
do so, and the bishop said that divulging names could
chill efforts to uncover wrongdoing by clergy. |
Washington,
D.C., District of Columbia |
CARDINAL THEODORE McCARRICK |
As bishop of the Metuchen, N.J.,
diocese in 1985, he accepted the Rev. Eugene O'Sullivan's
transfer from Boston - even though he knew the priest
had pleaded guilty to raping an altar boy in 1984. Father
O'Sullivan had been sentenced to five years' probation
and ordered not to have contact with young people. His
first assignment in New Jersey was to a parish with
an elementary school. During his seven years in Metuchen,
Father O'Sullivan was transferred to other churches
in which he continued to serve around children, including
a youth group, but parishioners weren't told of his
background. The priest was called back to Boston in
1992 and directed to stop his ministry. A year later,
when Cardinal McCarrick was questioned about Father
O'Sullivan, he acknowledged he was aware of the priest's
background. In agreeing to take Father O'Sullivan, Cardinal
McCarrick said, he had received assurances from Boston
and a treatment center that the priest was rehabilitated
and was told there were no work restrictions on him.
The cardinal has said he would not agree to accept such
a priest again. |
Manchester,
N.H. |
BISHOP JOHN McCORMACK |
Among the former aides to Boston
Cardinal Bernard Law who have been promoted to top leadership
positions elsewhere, Bishop McCormack has faced some
of the harshest criticism. Documents obtained in civil
lawsuits show that he let the Rev. Paul Shanley keep
working in a parish after a 1985 complaint that the
priest had endorsed man-boy sex in a speech, asking
Father Shanley only if he cared to comment on the allegation.
The bishop recently said he didn't know of any misconduct
with a minor by Father Shanley until 1993 - but the
archdiocese had settled an abuse lawsuit that named
the priest in 1991, and Bishop McCormack had written
to a colleague that same year "that Paul Shanley is
a sick person" who shouldn't be allowed to return to
Boston from California. Father Shanley was recently
charged with raping a young boy and has pleaded not
guilty. New allegations about Bishop McCormack's handling
of abuse allegations have emerged in litigation - including
that as a priest in the late 1960s he did nothing after
seeing the late Rev. Joseph Birmingham take a boy into
a rectory bedroom and hearing complaints about similar
behavior from several women. Bishop McCormack has denied
those allegations and added that, in dealing with Father
Shanley, he was "firm while still at the same time kind."
In early June, the Boston Herald reported that the bishop
had ignored his top Boston aide's urgings that he notify
parishes about priests who had been removed because
of abuse allegations. Bishop McCormack recently stepped
down as head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
abuse committee but remains a member of the panel. |
San Jose,
Calif. |
BISHOP PATRICK McGRATH |
The bishop let two priests work
despite their criminal convictions for sexual abuse
of children - until this spring. The Rev. Leonel Noia
was a pastor at a parish with a school until he recently
went on a sabbatical. In 1976, two brothers, ages 12
and 14, testified that Father Noia had shown them X-rated
magazines while on a camping trip that year, offered
them a drug that can enhance sexual sensations and molested
them on subsequent nights. He also performed oral sex
on the oldest. After two nights, the brothers sought
help from other campers, who called sheriff's deputies.
Father Noia, who was arrested after police found the
drug and magazines in his truck, pleaded no contest
to a felony in 1976 and was sentenced to six months
in jail. He blamed the episode on being drunk. After
attending treatment and serving part of his probation,
he was reassigned to a parish. Three years later, he
won a court petition to clear his record. "I have lived
in a faithful and dignified manner for 26 years," he
told the San Jose Mercury News in May. The second priest,
the Rev. Robert A. Gray, pleaded no contest after one
of his karate students complained to police in 1993
that the priest had massaged him in the nude. Investigators
found other students who said they were also fondled.
Father Gray was sentenced to 160 days in jail and underwent
treatment. Upon his return, he was given an administrative
job at diocesan offices. He was also permitted to celebrate
Mass at two parishes and preside at weddings until this
spring |
Owensboro,
Ky. |
BISHOP JOHN McRAITH |
He said in early June that he
had kept priests on the job after they admitted sexually
abusing children and got treatment. Bishop McRaith,
who has been in office since 1982, would not name the
priests and would say only that they were in "specialized
ministries" and had no contact with children. He could
not elaborate, he said, because of confidential settlements
reached with victims. The diocese did not notify police,
the bishop said. Since 1988, state law has required
reporting of child abuse; Bishop McRaith did not say
when he had learned of incidents. "I may well have,
or should have, reported them," he told the Evansville
Courier & Press. "At the time, I didn't even think
to report them." |
Lansing,
Mich. |
BISHOP CARL MENGELING |
In 1998, Bishop J. Keith Symons
resigned as head of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla.,
after admitting that he'd molested several altar boys
early in his career (see more under the Trenton, N.J.,
Diocese listing). A year later, he returned to the ministry
in Michigan, with approval from Bishop Mengeling and
the Vatican. Bishop Mengeling gave him "permission to
lead spiritual retreats for adults who seek to know
and love God," a spokesman told a reporter in 1999. |
Great Falls-Billings,
Mont. |
BISHOP ANTHONY MILONE |
When the Rev. John Houlihan
was accused two years ago of sexually harassing and
discriminating against a priest under his supervision,
Bishop Milone said the allegations were not credible
and left him on the job. Another priest had made a sexual
assault allegation against Father Houlihan in 1994,
but the bishop said that alleged victim had refused
to talk. However, Gene Jarussi, a Billings lawyer who
has represented both accusers, said the first claim
"was settled on its merits" for a confidential sum.
His current client, the Rev. Anandan Elangovan, has
a federal lawsuit pending against the diocese and Father
Houlihan, who deny wrongdoing. A state human rights
investigator has dismissed a complaint from Father Elangovan,
who was himself accused of sexually harassing a female
parishioner. |
Tucson,
Ariz. |
BISHOP MANUEL MORENO |
Lawsuits filed in recent years
by nearly a dozen people have alleged that Bishop Moreno
failed to act on complaints against at least four priests
accused of sex abuse. One suit, involving the Rev. Robert
Trupia, accused Bishop Moreno of keeping the priest
on the job with young boys, trying to discourage whistle-blowers
and shielding him from police investigators. Bishop
Moreno has denied that he or his staff covered up for
any priest, although after settling several suits this
year he acknowledged that "there have been failings
in the past." In Father Trupia's case, the bishop had
known of allegations against the priest for years, but
did not investigate until he was directed to do so in
1992 by an out-of-state archbishop who had been contacted
by a victim's mother. According to court records, Father
Trupia initially acknowledged molestation to Bishop
Moreno in April 1992, called himself a "loose cannon"
and said he was "unfit for the priesthood." But the
priest also threatened to reveal sexual relationships
he said he'd had with other high-ranking church officials,
if Bishop Moreno disclosed his admissions and didn't
allow him to retire. The bishop suspended Father Trupia
and ordered treatment. During the next few years, Bishop
Moreno told victims' families that Father Trupia had
denied the allegations. More recently, the bishop changed
his deposition testimony to deny that the priest admitted
abuse or made threats. According to court records, the
diocese refused to cooperate with police - first from
Tucson, then from Yuma - when they tried to investigate
the priest. The priest was arrested in late 2000, but
prosecutors decided the charges were too old to prosecute.
The priest has maintained his innocence. In a separate
case, Bishop Moreno has approved work for Bishop Patrick
Ziemann, who resigned in 1999 as head of the Diocese
of Santa Rosa, Calif., after accusations that he coerced
a priest into having sex. He found a new home at a monastery
in southern Arizona, working with young priest candidates
and counseling other people. A lawsuit against Bishop
Ziemann was settled in 2000 for more than $500,000. |
Syracuse,
N.Y. |
BISHOP JAMES MOYNIHAN |
He has allowed three priests
to have a role in ministry despite past sex-abuse accusations
and, in two cases, financial settlements. After arriving
in the mid-1990s, Bishop Moynihan let a retired monsignor,
the Rev. Charles Sewall, teach part-time at a Catholic
school - although the diocese had settled in 1988 a
complaint that he abused a boy while serving as a school
principal decades earlier. After the out-of-court settlement,
Monsignor Sewall underwent treatment but remained a
pastor and an administrator until he retired, then continued
to teach some. When the case resurfaced this year, Monsignor
Sewall admitted to the molestation. The victim, Lincoln
Franchell, who is now an adult, has said he is among
the three men who recently filed a lawsuit against Monsignor
Sewall. The diocese is also named as a defendant. The
men allege that the abuse happened on school grounds
in the 1970s and 1980s and that Monsignor Sewall offered
them money in exchange for silence. In a separate case,
police have charged a teenage boy who recanted claims
that Monsignor Sewall recently abused him. Although
dioceses across the country have drafted new guidelines
to tell authorities about allegations, Bishop Moynihan's
recently updated policy doesn't require such notification. |
Providence,
R.I. |
BISHOP ROBERT MULVEE |
He suspended the Rev. Normand
Demers in March - but the diocese had known about sexual
misconduct allegations against the priest since 1989,
when boys complained at a Haitian orphanage he helped
establish. They said he touched them inappropriately
and brought them to his bedroom, one at a time, to disrobe
in front of him while trying on clothing. Father Demers,
who denied wrongdoing, was forced to resign and left
Haiti to avoid prosecution, a former orphanage official
told The Providence Journal-Bulletin. He came back to
the Diocese of Providence and worked under Bishop Mulvee
for seven years, since the diocesan leader came to town.
He was removed this year after being accused of abusing
a boy long ago while working as a hospital chaplain
long. The bishop announced a "zero tolerance" policy
early this year, shortly after suspending a priest charged
with assaulting a 16-year-old boy repeatedly in 2001.
That cleric, the Rev. Daniel Azzarone Jr., had been
kept on the job despite allegations made in 1985 and
the late 1990s; the diocese said it couldn't substantiate
those claims. Bishop Mulvee, who wasn't in Providence
in 1985, said his staff didn't tell him about the late-1990s
accusation. |
Kalamazoo,
Mich. |
BISHOP JAMES MURRAY |
He employs and has expressed
strong support for the Rev. Thomas DeVita, who has admitted
sexual misconduct with a boy. Father DeVita has said
he had a few consensual encounters with a 16-year-old
parishioner in 1978, when he worked on Long Island,
N.Y., for the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The accuser's
family has said the sex started earlier, lasted longer
and was coerced. Father DeVita also has denied a sexual-misconduct
allegation made by an adult in 1995, after he'd been
transferred to the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., and
before he came to Kalamazoo. |
St. Thomas,
U.S. Virgin Islands |
BISHOP GEORGE MURRY |
Despite the Rev. John Calicott's
admission that he engaged in sexual misconduct with
two teenage boys in the mid-1970s, the Chicago archdiocese
reinstated him in 1995 - contrary to its policy against
letting known abusers work. Bishop Murry, then an auxiliary
to the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, was supervising
the archdiocesan region where Father Calicott was stationed.
And he led Father Calicott's reinstatement ceremony.
Bishop Murry said at the time that church members had
assured him that they wanted Father Calicott returned
to their parish. After the victims had come forward
in 1994 and an archdiocesean review panel recommended
removal, Father Calicott was placed on leave and sent
to treatment. Evaluations prepared during his treatment
concluded that he wasn't a sexual predator, clearing
the way for his reinstatement. Upon his return, Father
Calicott described himself as "angry" that the church
removed him and put him through "rigorous" counseling.
The archdiocese did order that a monitor be present
whenever he had contact with children, which today includes
his work as a Boy Scout master and a grammar school
teacher. |
Palm Beach,
Fla. |
ADMINISTRATOR JAMES MURTAGH |
A longtime diocesan manager,
he has been the acting bishop since his former boss,
Bishop Anthony O'Connell, resigned in March after admitting
he abused a seminary student years ago. Parishioners
have complained about Father Murtagh getting the temporary
appointment, saying that he played a key part in past
administrations that protected abusive priests. As interim
leader during a previous diocesan leadership transition
in the early 1990s, Father Murtagh reassigned a priest
who had been accused for years of sexually harassing
women and had been the subject of at least one secret
settlement. The Rev. Frank Flynn was later accused of
sexually abusing a woman who came to him for counseling,
and he transferred to Ireland. Father Murtagh has described
the priest's accusers as women who had been in "consensual
relationships gone sour." This spring, a woman accused
Father Flynn of molesting her in the late 1970s and
early 1980, beginning she was 12 years old. The priest
denied her allegations; police are investigating. One
prominent church fund-raiser has called on Father Murtagh
to resign because of the Flynn matter and that of the
Rev. William White. Father White was allowed to teach
at a South Florida seminary and help out at parishes
for more than four years after church officials in New
York, in 1997, reached a settlement with one of his
former students, whom he admitted molesting. The acting
bishop has defended the diocese's handling of both priests. |
Newark,
N.J. |
ARCHBISHOP JOHN MYERS |
During his time as leader of
the Diocese of Peoria, Ill. - which he left last year
- at least one priest was accused of sexual abuse and
reassigned. A Peoria diocesan spokeswoman said the Rev.
John Anderson was first accused of abuse in 1993 and
removed from a parish. The archbishop, who was recently
appointed to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
abuse committee, said he had no knowledge of the matter.
Father Anderson, who served until recently as director
of the diocesan office for Propagation of the Faith,
has not commented publicly. He was among seven priests
suspended in May by the Peoria Diocese. After those
suspensions, accusers of a previously suspended Peoria
priest said that Archbishop Myers had not responded
to their complaints in the early 1990s until, after
months of frustration, they talked to a local newspaper.
And then-Bishop Myers later moved to reinstate the Rev.
Francis Engels, then backed off when alleged victims
complained. "I didn't realize they would be so upset,"
the archbishop recently said. |
Venice,
Fla. |
BISHOP JOHN NEVINS |
Despite numerous complaints
about the Rev. Ed McLoughlin's "touchy-feely" nature,
a doctor's directive that he stop working near children
and several treatment stays, the longtime bishop kept
the priest at work. A lawsuit alleged that Bishop Nevins
ignored the warnings until 1996, when a former altar
boy's lawyer approached the diocese about sexual assaults.
The bishop then suspended Father McLoughlin from his
job at a parish with a school and later paid $500,000
to settle the case. The boy, in his early teens at the
time, said he first turned to Father McLoughlin in 1992
after a church choir director had repeatedly assaulted
him. Father McLoughlin told the boy that he needed punishment
and spanked him, starting years of molestation. In 1993,
a year after the abuse began, an Atlanta doctor cautioned
the diocese that "it would be inappropriate" for the
priest to work near children, yet he stayed on duty.
Father McLoughlin's personnel file also included complaints
from parents, his co-workers and children about his
inappropriate touching since the mid-1980s, when Bishop
Nevins took over. |
Phoenix,
Ariz. |
BISHOP THOMAS O'BRIEN |
He has a 20-year record of sheltering
priests accused of abuse but has largely remained out
of the national spotlight. Criminal investigators say
he has been uncooperative - and a district attorney
recently opened a preliminary inquiry into the diocese's
handling of sex-abuse allegations. Since the mid-1980s,
at least four Phoenix priests have served jail time
in connection with molesting children. The bishop has
advocated lighter sentences and let one priest work
after he was sentenced to probation. When the most recent
abuse case surfaced this year, Bishop O'Brien criticized
the Phoenix press for reporting a 1999 psychological
evaluation that said the Rev. Patrick Colleary's "history
will be repeated in some way" and that he shouldn't
"work with minors or women." Bishop O'Brien kept Father
Colleary active until May despite knowing of six complaints
- including that he raped and impregnated a young woman
and that he fondled an altar boy. Father Colleary, who
has received therapy, denied most of the wrongdoings
and said his relationship with the woman was consensual.
In the case of the Rev. Joseph M. Lessard, Bishop O'Brien
dismissed previous complaints and assigned him to a
teaching job. Father Lessard was later accused of performing
oral sex on a 13-year-old in the boy's room while his
parents were down the hallway. When police investigated
in the mid-1980s, Bishop O'Brien refused to tell them
about a confession the priest made to him, according
to court records. Father Lessard eventually admitted
the molestation and was put on probation. After treatment,
he transferred to the Midwest as a hospital chaplain.
The diocese denied knowing his exact location not long
after he left. |
Brownsville,
Texas |
BISHOP RAYMUNDO PENA |
Police say that Bishop Pena
and his staff didn't help them find a priest who vanished
last summer during their investigation into allegations
that the priest had raped a 16-year-old mentally disabled
incest victim. "It's been like hitting a brick wall,"
Lt. Guadalupe Salinas recently told The Brownsville
Herald. "Church officials referred us to their legal
counsel. That didn't help anything." The Rev. Basil
Chukwuma Onyia, who is from Nigeria, is the target of
an arrest warrant. A lawsuit filed in connection with
the case alleges that the diocese has and continues
"to cover up the incidents of priest sexual abuse of
minors and prevent disclosure, prosecution and civil
litigation." Through his attorneys, Bishop Pena has
denied wrongdoing. The lawyers have responded to the
civil suit by saying that the court system has no jurisdiction
over a church.The bishop also said in a published letter
that the diocese has documentation showing that it cooperated
with police. |
San Angelo,
Texas |
BISHOP MICHAEL PFEIFER |
Church documents now emerging
in civil litigation show that the diocese let seminary
candidate Agusti Huerres come to Texas from Spain in
1999 without getting what the bishop once called "the
most important document" - a recommendation from the
religious order he had left there or an explanation
for his departure. Mr. Huerres began living and working
at a San Angelo parish, where he was accused in 2000
of pulling down a teenage boy's pants, touching his
buttocks and taking his underwear. The boy's family
promptly went to the diocese and police, then agreed
not to press charges after being summoned to a meeting
with a prosecutor and Bishop Pfeifer's representatives.
The representatives sent Mr. Huerres back to Spain immediately.
Church officials' notes say that Mr. Huerres admitted
the misconduct to them - "He said he had 'lost control,'
that his 'wires were crossed.' " The bishop has denied
the family's allegation of negligence. In early June,
another of his priests was arrested and charged with
sexually assaulting a girl in the late 1980s and early
1990s. The Rev. Miguel Esquivel was removed from ministry
this spring after the accuser went to Bishop Pfeifer.
Her attorney said that the diocese, which Bishop Pfeifer
has headed since 1985, got other complaints about Father
Esquivel about a decade ago but allowed him to keep
working. Bishop Pfeifer acknowledged that several women
had complained of sexual harassment and that he sent
the priest into treatment, on to another parish and
ultimately to his most recent assignment as a prison
chaplain in New Mexico. |
Cincinnati,
Ohio |
ARCHBISHOP DANIEL PILARCZYK |
In March, he said that a few
accused priests were on the job but not working with
children; he wouldn't identify them or give other details.
A county grand jury then began investigating, and the
district attorney accused the archdiocese of censoring
records he had subpoenaed. Archbishop Pilarczyk's attorney
denied the accusation. Recently, the archbishop acknowledged
that three of the accused men were working in parishes
- supervised by people "who know about the offender's
condition," he said - and that a fourth was working
at the Vatican. Documents that recently surfaced in
civil litigation, meanwhile, show that the archbishop
helped a pedophile priest keep working in different
posts for nearly 20 years. The Rev. George Cooley was
first accused of misconduct in 1971 at a seminary where
he was a student and Archbishop Pilarczyk was rector.
The accuser, like others after him, complained almost
immediately to top church officials. Mr. Cooley has
since served a short jail term and been defrocked. |
Cleveland,
Ohio |
BISHOP ANTHONY PILLA |
He and his aides have long been
accused of covering up for abusive priests. They kept
Rev. Gary Berthiaume in a parish for most of the 1980s,
for example, without telling the congregation about
his prior molestation conviction in the Archdiocese
of Detroit. A priest assigned to monitor him, the Rev.
Allen Bruening, himself previously had been removed
from a parish because of abuse allegations and made
director of a Catholic high school. Father Bruening
was accused of misconduct again in the mid-1980s and
ended up in Texas, where he became one of the Amarillo
diocese's top administrators before being removed from
ministry about 10 years ago. Father Berthiaume was also
transferred again, to the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., where
he recently lost his job as a hospital chaplain. Last
year, he and Father Bruening were accused in a lawsuit
of repeatedly ganging up on one boy in a shower in the
1980s in Cleveland. One of Bishop Pilla's longtime top
aides, Auxiliary Bishop A. James Quinn, advised a group
of church lawyers in a speech 12 years ago to remove
some documents from priests' personnel files. "If there's
something you really don't want people to see, you might
send it off to the apostolic delegate [the Vatican embassy
in Washington], because they have immunity," said Bishop
Quinn, who is also a lawyer. Some plaintiffs' attorneys
have since named him in lawsuits that accuse top Catholic
leaders of racketeering. Bishop Quinn has said his speech
was not about sexual abuse or any other crime. He serves
on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' abuse committee
and, like all auxiliary bishops, is a voting member
of the conference. In late May, Bishop Pilla announced
that any priests who abuse children in the future will
be permanently barred from ministry in his diocese.
But it wasn't clear what would happen to several clerics
who have been suspended because of past allegations. |
Las Cruces,
N.M. |
BISHOP RICARDO RAMIREZ |
In an Easter letter to parishioners,
he said that priests applying to the diocese are screened
and that he "does not and will not tolerate sexual abuse
of children." The bishop also said that the diocese,
in its nearly 20-year history, had not faced any abuse
suits. By late April, however, the diocese acknowledged
that Bishop Ramirez had let an admitted molester, the
Rev. David Bentley, serve in a parish since 2000. Father
Bentley's home diocese of Albany, N.Y. (see more under
that listing), had paid $70,000 in 1997 to a man who
said the priest abused him and his siblings at a children's
home in the 1970s. Father Bentley was recently suspended
and recalled to Albany. Bishop Ramirez has said that
criticisms of his letter "are well-taken because we
could have been clearer." |
Worcester,
Mass. |
BISHOP DANIEL REILLY |
More than 30 sex-abuse lawsuits
have been filed in recent years alleging that he and
other administrators took part in covering for accused
priests during his tenures at three New England dioceses.
Bishop Reilly, who also worked in Providence, R.I.,
and Norwich, Conn., has denied involvement in decisions
to transfer clerics. He kept the Rev. Peter Inzerillo
of Worcester active despite allegations of sexual misconduct
with a young priest candidate in the mid-1980s. The
man said the misconduct happened when he was 19 during
counseling sessions with Father Inzerillo. He said he
had confided to Father Inzerillo that another priest
had abused him when he was 13. Father Inzerillo denied
the allegation, but after a lawsuit was filed in 1994
the bishop at the time placed him on leave. Years later,
Bishop Reilly settled the case for $300,000 and reinstated
the priest at a church. Bishop Reilly continued to express
support for Father Inzerillo and let him work until
March. When parishioners demanded the priest's removal,
Bishop Reilly relented and put Father Inzerillo on leave
again. |
St. Louis,
Mo. |
ARCHBISHOP JUSTIN RIGALI |
As the Boston abuse scandal
brought pressure on dioceses nationwide, he decided
to remove two priests he had previously kept active.
One was the Rev. Joseph D. Ross, who pleaded guilty
in 1988 to sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy during
a confession. Archbishop Rigali, however, has not dismissed
three other accused clerics, two of whom have jobs near
children. One, the Rev. Leroy Valentine, was working
at a parish next to a school; four years ago the church
secretly settled claims that he molested three brothers
in their own home. The mother of the boys, who are now
adults, said she went to St. Louis police in 1982. But
they told her to work out the matter with the archdiocese.
This year, the archdiocese issued a statement expressing
continued support of Father Valentine. Weeks later,
he quit as allegations surfaced that he assaulted an
8-year-old altar boy during a 1978 confession. The boy,
now grown, said he was molested during the first time
he received the sacrament of confession. |
Biloxi, Miss. |
BISHOP THOMAS RODI
|
As a high-ranking priest in
New Orleans in the late 1990s, he defended the archdiocese's
failure to tell police about a molestation allegation
against Catholic schoolteacher Brian Matherne (see more
under the Austin Diocese listing). Mr. Matherne stayed
on the job and abused more students before being caught
and sentenced to prison. Bishop Rodi later called for
the archdiocese to review its policy on responding to
abuse complaints, which he had helped draft. Recently,
as head of the Biloxi Diocese, he said that the Catholic
Church in general has not "been addressing these allegations
as promptly as we should have." |
Paterson,
N.J. |
BISHOP FRANK RODIMER |
The longtime bishop apologized
in April for his "own inadequacy" in failing to prevent
abuse by at least four of his priests and a clergy colleague
with whom he shared a Long Island beach house. Bishop
Rodimer said he hadn't known that the Rev. Peter Osinski,
a friend from another diocese, had been molesting a
young boy at the beach house beginning in the early
1980s. The bishop said the only contact he saw between
the two was hugging, and he wasn't aware of sexual misconduct
until Father Osinski was arrested in 1997. The priest
pleaded guilty and is serving a 10-year prison sentence.
Even after Bishop Rodimer issued his apology this spring,
he continued to express support for another priest who
had pleaded guilty in 1988 to fondling two young brothers
and was returned to ministry - as a hospital chaplain
- in the early 1990s. When the allegations against the
Rev. William Cramer first came to light many years ago,
the bishop transferred the priest to two other parishes.
After he was indicted in 1985, Father Cramer resigned
from parish work. He continues to work as a chaplain
with the bishop's support. Bishop Rodimer had also investigated
the Rev. Jose Alonso in the 1980s, but did not act.
Years later, Father Alonso was sentenced to five years
in prison for assaulting two altar boys. In another
case, the bishop allowed the Rev. James Hanley to remain
in place after the priest admitted he had abused a young
boy. Mark Serrano, who in adulthood has become an outspoken
critic of the bishop, said Father Hanley forced oral
sex and masturbation on him for seven years, beginning
when he was 9. The priest blamed his actions on alcoholism
and promised Bishop Rodimer he would stop. The bishop
removed Father Hanley in the mid-1980s - about a year
after the victim's family began pressing for action.
After that, Father Hanley worked briefly at an Albany,
N.Y., hospital with the approval of the bishop there.
(See more under the Albany Diocese listing.) |
Lubbock,
Texas |
BISHOP PLACIDO RODRIGUEZ |
In a March letter, he said that
"no priest coming from outside the diocese may celebrate
Mass or work in the diocese without presenting credentials
that he is in good standing." Yet until sometime this
spring, the Rev. Anthony Eremito -- who was accused
of abuse in his home archdiocese of New York several
years ago and forbidden to serve as a priest there --
was working as Lubbock hospital chaplain. Through a
spokesman, Bishop Rodriguez referred questions to the
hospital and New York church officials, saying that
they were responsible for the priest. The officials
in New York won't comment on why Father Eremito was
forbidden to work there or why he was removed from duty
in Lubbock. A hospital spokesman said he wasn't familiar
with the matter and couldn't comment. The priest, who
came to Lubbock in the late 1990s, has an unlisted phone
number and could not be reached for comment. He faces
no known civil or criminal charges. His accusers include
the Rev. John Bambrick, who has said he was a 15-year-old
aspiring priest when Father Eremito repeatedly abused
him in 1980. Father Bambrick, now pastor of a church
in New Jersey, said New York archdiocesan officials
promised him in the mid-1990s that Father Eremito would
never work again with their permission. But one of those
officials, he said, recently told him that the archdiocese
had arranged for him to transfer to Lubbock. That official
did not return a call from The Dallas Morning News. |
Grand Rapids,
Mich. |
BISHOP ROBERT ROSE |
He kept the Rev. Dennis Wagner
on the job until May - despite a 1983 guilty plea in
connection with abuse of a 13-year-old boy and four
more sex-abuse allegations that were made years later.
In the first matter, Father Wagner had pleaded guilty
to lesser charges and served two years' probation. He
also was removed from his pastoral duties and sent to
treatment. Afterward, Father Wagner was assigned to
interpret church law at diocesan headquarters, where
he was working when four more claims of past abuse surfaced
in 1993. The diocese confirmed them and ordered more
counseling. Bishop Rose, who arrived in 1989, let Father
Wagner continue working until the church substantiated
the sixth complaint this year. In announcing the removal,
the bishop said he "informed Father Wagner that he has
no future in the priesthood." |
Monterey,
Calif. |
BISHOP SYLVESTER RYAN |
He has the Rev. Paul Valdez
back at a parish job, despite having settled a lawsuit
that accused the priest of touching a sixth-grade girl's
groin during confession in late 1998. No criminal charges
were filed; a police report cited by The Monterey
County Herald said that several other students in
the girl's Catholic school class also told their teacher
that they didn't want to go to confession with the priest.
Police say that after the girl told a nun in writing
about her encounter with Father Valdez, the nun berated
her in front of the class, pressured her to demonstrate
what had happened and warned children that the allegation
could ruin the priest's reputation. Another nun told
a child welfare agency official that she had investigated
and that no crime had occurred. The diocese has said
that it cooperated fully with authorities, and Father
Valdez's attorney has called the lawsuit baseless. In
2001, meanwhile, Bishop Ryan settled a lawsuit with
a family whose 15-year-old son was abused by a man posing
as a monk. The church's pastor, the Rev. Patrick Dooling,
admitted in a deposition that he let Anthony Thomas
Falco volunteer with youths for a year even he though
he suspected the man was an impostor and knew that he
had been arrested previously for possessing child pornography.
Mr. Falco took teens from the church on a pilgrimage
to Bosnia, where he drugged, bound, beat and molested
the 15-year-old, according to the suit. He has been
sentenced to prison for abusing that boy and another. |
Anchorage,
Alaska |
ARCHBISHOP ROGER SCHWIETZ |
One of his top aides is the
Rev. Timothy Crowley, who left a pastor's job in 1993
in the Diocese of Lansing, Mich., after being accused
of sexual misconduct with a boy. Church officials in
Anchorage recently acknowledged that they knew about
the priest's past. They said they consulted with his
therapists and let him have no contact with youths.
Alaska newspaper accounts show that Father Crowley has
served in recent years as Archbishop Schwietz's liaison
to a Catholic school and that he officiates at weddings
and funerals. He has declined to discuss the allegations
against him and has said he resigned in Michigan "for
personal reasons." |
Santa
Fe, N.M. |
ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL SHEEHAN |
He's been widely credited with
cleaning up the archdiocese, whose previous leader had
kept several abusive priests on the job, cost the church
tens of millions in legal settlements and quit in 1993
after admitting affairs with young women. Yet Archbishop
Sheehan, as bishop of Lubbock in the 1980s, let at least
one accused man keep working in remote parishes for
years - which was one reason that the West Texas diocese
later had to settle lawsuits, too. He has said he sent
the Rev. Rodney Howell into treatment for alcoholism
in 1986 after a family alleged that the priest had molested
two of their children while drunk. "I think it was true,"
the archbishop has said. He returned Father Howell to
duty, and the priest worked until he died of cancer
in 1993. Parishioners have said Father Howell was sometimes
assisted in celebrating Mass by his brother Gerald "Jerry"
Howell - even though he had been suspended from the
priesthood in New Orleans after a church tribunal investigated
molestation allegations against him. Archbishop Sheehan
has said he first learned of those allegations when
a New Orleans television station reported in 1992 that
several people had accused the Howells of abuse in the
1970s. Before going to Lubbock, Archbishop Sheehan was
a high-ranking priest in the Diocese of Dallas. As head
of Holy Trinity Seminary, he admitted Rudy Kos to the
school after his predecessor had refused to do so. During
the 1997 Kos civil trial, which resulted in the largest
clergy-abuse verdict in history, the archbishop acknowledged
that he didn't review Mr. Kos' annulment records. They
quoted Mr. Kos' ex-wife as saying Mr. Kos "has some
problems" but did not get specific. She testified that
she had told an annulment investigator that he was sexually
attracted to boys, brought them to their apartment and
never had sex with her. Mr. Kos' two younger brothers
testified that seminary officials did little to get
information from them about their sibling, who they
said had molested them and had spent time in juvenile
detention for abusing another younger boy. Diocese officials
have said they did their best to get information about
Mr. Kos' past before he entered the seminary. |
Milwaukee,
Wis. |
BISHOP RICHARD SKLBA |
Bishop Sklba played a key role
in handling molestation allegations for Archbishop Rembert
Weakland, and together they put several admitted abusers
into ministerial jobs - where some have remained. (The
archbishop recently quit after revelations that he spent
$450,000 in church funds to pay a former theology student
who accused him of sexual assault; he admitted an affair
but denied abuse). Bishop Sklba was involved in the
case of the Rev. David Hanser, whose victims were promised
as part of a 1989 out-of-court settlement that he would
not have access to children again. Bishop Sklba, who
was named as enforcer of the agreement, let the priest
work until this spring as chaplain of a hospital with
a children's unit. Some key current and former hospital
staff members told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that
they weren't advised of restrictions on Father Hanser's
ministry, but the archdiocese said it kept top hospital
officials apprised. Father Hanser, who served on the
hospital's ethics committee, retired in April and has
not commented publicly, though he apologized as part
of the 1989 settlement. Bishop Sklba, now the acting
head of the archdiocese, has not commented. In 1994,
the archdiocese paid a settlement to the victim of another
priest who was kept on duty for years after admitting
to Bishop Sklba that he had fondled a boy. That priest,
the Rev. Peter Burns, began to see a therapist at the
bishop's behest but continued to have boys spend the
night with him at his church home, according to court
records. The first boy reportedly committed suicide
in the early 1990s after Father Burns was charged with
sexually assaulting another youth. Father Burns was
sentenced to nine months in jail and 10 years of probation. |
Trenton,
N.J. |
BISHOP JOHN M. SMITH |
In 1995, he arranged a meeting
between Bishop Keith Symons of the Palm Beach, Fla.,
Diocese and a man who had accused Bishop Symons of molesting
him years earlier. During the conversation, he listened
as Bishop Symons admitted to the abuse, assured everyone
that there was the only one victim and promised to get
counseling. Bishop Smith, then of the Pensacola-Tallahasee,
Fla., Diocese, seemed satisfied, and Bishop Symons returned
to work. But as the years passed, the victim became
increasingly bothered by church statements that incidents
of clergy abuse were isolated. So the victim came forward
again in 1998. By then, Bishop Smith had moved onto
Trenton and his successor, John Ricard, took a different
approach. Within weeks, Bishop Symons had conceded that
he had molested five altar boys, and he was forced out
in a move that the church hailed as demonstrating its
swift response to clergy abuse. That summer, however,
police records made it clear that Bishop Smith had failed
to act on the first victim's allegations in 1995. The
bishop had little comment, other than to describe the
meeting he had set up as one "to effect a spiritual
reconciliation." Prosecutors, citing statutes of limitation,
didn't file charges against Bishop Symons. By 1999,
Bishop Symons had returned to ministry in the Lansing,
Mich., Diocese with permission of the bishop there and
the Vatican (see more under that listing). |
Fresno,
Calif. |
BISHOP JOHN STEINBOCK |
He recently told a Fresno newspaper
that other bishops "may have made some wrong decisions"
in dealing with accused priests but defended his own
actions regarding the Rev. Donald Kimball. As leader
of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, Calif., Bishop Steinbock
let Father Kimball go back to work in 1987 after the
priest admitted fondling girls and got counseling. He
suspended him a few years later after another victim
came forward. Father Kimball recently was convicted
of molestation and sentenced to seven years in prison.
The Santa Rosa diocese said it has spent $1.6 million
to settle a lawsuit with one of Father Kimball's victims.
Previously, as auxiliary bishop in Orange, Calif., Bishop
Steinbock allowed the Rev. Richard Coughlin to serve
after he was accused of abuse in the Boston archdiocese.
Boston church officials have said they told Bishop Steinbock
about complaints against the priest; the bishop has
said he doesn't recall. After the bishop went to Fresno,
Father Coughlin was suspended in Orange when former
members of a boys choir he founded there accused him
of abuse. He denied the allegations and was not prosecuted. |
Reno,
Nev. |
BISHOP PHILLIP STRALING |
In 1993, as bishop of the Diocese
of San Bernardino, Calif., he assigned the Rev. Joe
Fertal to a parish despite a warning letter from the
priest's religious order. Father Fertal, the order said,
had spent months in treatment for "sexual identity anxieties"
and should not have a youth ministry or "spend inordinate
amounts of time with young people." By 1995, according
to a lawsuit that the diocese confidentially settled,
he had molested a 16-year-old boy he met in a religion
class, given him alcohol and raped him. Father Fertal
recently denied wrongdoing and said the diocese paid
the accuser "to make sure the bishop isn't deposed."
(See more under the San Bernardino Diocese listing.)
In the late 1980s, Bishop Straling helped the Rev. Gustavo
Benson transfer to a parish in Mexico after the priest
was sentenced to probation for molesting an altar boy.
The bishop told his counterpart in the Diocese of Tijuana
that Father Benson should never work with adolescents,
according to a 1987 letter. But in a recent interview
with The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif., the
priest said he was ministering to children. About the
same time, a priest who had been Bishop Straling's spokesman
in San Bernardino said the diocese "never knowingly
shuffled any priest ... to another country." The spokesman
also said that the diocese, under Bishop Straling, had
not told police about years-old molestation complaints
against other priests. "We did not handle them correctly,"
the spokesman said. Authorities got information from
the diocese in April. |
Richmond,
Va. |
BISHOP WALTER SULLIVAN |
He allowed Brother August Ludwig
to keep working despite another bishop's warning that
the man faced decades-old allegations of abusing teenage
boys while he was a Catholic school principal in Washington
state. Bishop Sullivan assured the other bishop that
he would keep Brother Ludwig away from children. Brother
Ludwig was removed as headmaster at an all-boys high
school and ordered to undergo an evaluation. The diocese
even asked Richmond police to investigate at the time;
one sergeant recalled recently that he "turned up absolutely
nothing" in Virginia. But after Brother Ludwig finished
treatment, Bishop Sullivan let him work a few years
later at another parish - one that operated a grade
school. Officials there insisted Brother Ludwig had
limited contact with children. When one of Brother Ludwig's
alleged victims from Washington state discovered he
was still active in 1998, he called Richmond police
and the diocese. The cleric was then moved to a monastery
and then another treatment facility, where he remains.
The brother has apologized to one of his estimated five
victims but has denied abusing the others |
Pueblo,
Colo. |
BISHOP ARTHUR TAFOYA |
In the mid-1990s, he confidentially
settled lawsuits that accused the Rev. Delbert Blong
of infecting two men with the AIDS virus during sexual
relationships that began when the victims were adolescents.
One expert who worked on the case said he knew of three
more men who died of AIDS after sexual encounters with
Father Blong, who has since died. One of the plaintiffs,
Thomas Perea, said he had an 11-year relationship with
the priest that began after he sought counseling in
the eighth grade. The diocese admitted no wrongdoing
in the settlements; a spokesman would not say whether
it had received other complaints against the priest.
Father Blong admitted having AIDS and having had a relationship
with Mr. Perea, whom he accused of infecting him. |
Laredo,
Texas |
BISHOP JAMES TAMAYO |
As a high-ranking priest in
the Diocese of Corpus Christi in 1987, he and two colleagues
were assigned to investigate a mother's allegations
that a deacon had tried to seduce her 15-year-old son.
They later recommended the man, John Feminelli, for
ordination to the priesthood, even though he acknowledged
that he had given the boy money, clothes, a guitar and
other gifts. Mr. Feminelli - now Father Feminelli -
denied an allegation that he pressed the boy to travel
out of town and wrestle in a motel room. The three investigators
told other priests that the accuser, Paul Kelly, had
recanted - which Mr. Kelly disputed in a 1992 interview
with The Houston Chronicle. The investigators
also urged that Father Feminelli, who was assigned to
duty at a retirement home, get "intense counseling with
regards to his prudence and his ability to form adult
relationships." |
Scranton,
Pa. |
BISHOP JAMES TIMLIN |
In a federal lawsuit filed this
spring, the longtime bishop is accused of ignoring past
allegations against two priests working as chaplains
at a boys school and of failing to properly investigate
a more recent complaint that they molested a student.
Bishop Timlin temporarily removed the priests in January
after receiving a letter from that student's father
and forwarded the allegations to prosecutors a month
later. The priests have denied molesting the victim,
who was a junior when the alleged abuse began in 1997.
The victim said the Rev. Eric Ensey gave him alcohol
and tobacco before coercing him into sexual acts on
several occasions. The victim said that he had to resist
further advances Father Ensey made three years later,
while the young man was studying to become a priest
himself. He sought a secure place to sleep, and the
Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity offered his room. But after
a few nights, the victim said, Father Urrutigoity also
began touching him as well. The lawsuit contends that
the diocese knew Father Ensey had been accused of molesting
a seminarian in Argentina and that Father Urrutigoity
had faced similar allegations while he was in Winona,
Minn. The diocese also had known of past allegations
against one other priest that it recently removed from
ministry. Several years ago, the Rev. Thomas Skotek
was sent to treatment following a complaint and reassigned
to parish work. An evaluation at the time had determined
that he wasn't a predator, the bishop said. This spring,
after another accusation from the past surfaced, Father
Skotek was removed as pastor of two parishes. The diocese
said he admitted to "some improper conduct" decades
ago with a teenage girl. |
Erie,
Pa. |
BISHOP DONALD TRAUTMAN |
In March, he said that his diocese
had none of the scandals that had hit Catholic leaders
elsewhere. "All the problems here have been addressed,"
Bishop Trautman said. "That I can say before the Lord."
A month later, the Rev. Robert Bower resigned after
a local newspaper reported that he had been arrested
on child pornography charges in 1999. The district attorney
said the case was dropped because police mishandled
evidence. More recently, Bishop Trautman initially refused
to comply with the prosecutor's demand for records on
suspected abusers, but later agreed to surrender some
files. The bishop said his review of those records led
him to suspend some priests, whom he would not identify. |
Saginaw,
Mich. |
BISHOP KENNETH UNTENER |
The Rev. John Hammer had been
deemed unfit for the Youngstown, Ohio, Diocese and struggled
throughout the late 1980s to find another bishop willing
to employ him. In 1990, Bishop Untener gave him that
chance, although he knew the priest had molested an
altar boy. The bishop did so on the advice of Youngstown
Bishop James Malone, the man who had removed the priest.
Bishop Malone, who has since died, sent Father Hammer's
records to his colleague and said the priest was ready
to minister again after receiving treatment. Bishop
Untener said he also reviewed the cleric's case with
two doctors before hiring him. Father Hammer led two
Michigan churches until this spring, when a victim called
on the diocese to remove him. The priest admitted the
past molestation to his parishioners, and the diocese
initially kept him on the job, but he later resigned. |
Sacramento,
Calif. |
BISHOP WILLIAM WEIGAND |
He has said that three accused
priests remain on the job "because the allegations were
not sustainable." But in one of the cases, the diocese
paid the Rev. Vincent Brady's accuser $350,000 in 2000
to drop a lawsuit. Susan Hoey-Lees said that more than
20 years ago Father Brady molested her - beginning when
she was 11 and continuing until she was 16. On one occasion
when he was baby-sitting her, she said, her parents
walked into her room to find the priest in bed with
her. Both parents support her account. A diocesan spokesman
said the presence of two witnesses was "damning," but
that was outweighed by Father Brady's denial. The priest
said he had no memory of being in the girl's bed or
of baby-sitting her. The diocese spokesman also cited
other factors - including that the parents did not complain
at the time and that no one else had ever accused the
priest. The parents said they regret not acting immediately.
Bishop Weigand has refused to identify the other accused
priests who are still working. |
Pittsburgh,
Pa. |
BISHOP DONALD WUERL |
Early this year, he removed
from ministry several priests he had allowed to keep
working in spite of "credible" abuse allegations. The
bishop and his spokesman would not identify the men
or say how many there were or characterize the accusations.
The priests had been kept on the job after church investigators
could not substantiate the claims against them, a diocesan
spokesman said. Now, he explained, "we raised the bar." |
Amarillo,
Texas |
BISHOP JOHN YANTA
|
He employed the Rev. Richard
Scully, who was removed in 1988 from a parish in the
Diocese of Yakima, Wash., after a lawsuit accused him
and another priest of molesting a teenage boy. That
case and a similar one were settled confidentially in
recent years, The Seattle Times reported. For
the last several years, Father Scully has been pastor
of a church in the Panhandle town of Dumas. He was suspended
in March for reasons that the diocese wouldn't discuss
with The Dallas Morning News. "I don't think
I should go there," said the Rev. Harold Waldo, who
handles priest personnel matters for Bishop Yanta. He
said that Father Scully "did not offend here." Bishop
Yanta recently told an Amarillo reporter that he would
not discuss whether abuse allegations had been made
against priests in his diocese or whether accused clergymen
had been transferred there from elsewhere. He referred
to a church law that says: "No one is permitted to damage
unlawfully the good reputation which another person
enjoys nor to violate the right of another person to
protect his or her own privacy." |
Bismarck,
N.D. |
BISHOP PAUL ZIPFEL
|
Until March, he allowed the
Rev. Steve Zastoupil and the Rev. Norman Dukart to serve
in parishes "despite substantiated allegations of sexual
molestation of minors which took place many years ago,"
according to a statement issued through his attorney.
The lawyer, Tom Bair, said the diocese had been aware
of the cases for years. He said the diocese receives
molestation complaints against priests "from time to
time" and would not say how many settlements it has
paid to victims. A month before the priests were removed,
one of Bishop Zipfel's top aides said she knew of no
cases of sexual misconduct by the diocese's priests. |
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