Three people in the Great Falls-Billings Diocese have come
forward this year to tell church officials they were sexually abused by priests
years ago. The church is investigating all reports, two of which date from 30 to
40 years ago. The other involves a priest who officials believe is no longer
active in the ministry.
The Omaha Archdiocese dismissed a 62-year-old priest from his job as a pastor and allowed him retire early following accusations that he sexually abused boys at four parishes more than 30 years ago. The claims against the Rev. Thomas Sellentin are too old to be prosecuted in criminal court. No civil lawsuits have been filed.
The Rev. Robert Allgaier is to stand trial in June on charges of
attempted possession of child pornography and has been suspended from his
duties. After being caught in one parish, Allgaier admitted to church officials
he often viewed child porn, but the Omaha archdiocese never notified police.
Instead, Allgaier was transferred to another parish where he was a middle-school
teacher. Allgaier was arrested in February after police received a tip from a
concerned teacher.
A priest in a Las Vegas suburb was charged last week with fondling, photographing and massaging teen-age boys he was counseling at his parish.
Rev. Mark Roberts, 51, was charged with two felonies for allegedly using minors in the production of pornography after being accused of taking Polaroid photos of two boys. He also faces seven gross misdemeanor charges, including lewdness and child abuse.
The Diocese of Las Vegas says the Roberts case is the only one in Nevada involving an active Catholic clergy member accused of sexual misconduct. He was suspended Jan. 30 from his parish in Henderson.
The case became public after eight boys filed a civil lawsuit in
March against Roberts, the diocese, Bishop Joseph A. Pepe, and former Las Vegas
Bishop Daniel Walsh, now bishop in Santa Rosa, Calif.
The Diocese of Manchester in February gave prosecutors the names of 14 priests with allegations of sex abuse against them. Seven already were suspended, the others were suspended that day. The diocese released the name of another previously suspended priest a month later. Authorities are still investigating the claims.
On Friday, allegations surfaced against two more priests. The Rev. George H. Robichaud was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a boy in 1985. The Rev. Edward D. Richard was removed from his church pending an abuse investigation.
The state attorney general's office has said it is investigating allegations against more than 40 others. Those complaints were made to authorities by alleged victims.
Bishop John B. McCormack, who was in charge of ministerial
personnel in the Archdiocese of Boston from 1984 to 1994, has been accused in
lawsuits of shuffling around Massachusetts priests accused of abusing children,
and of ignoring complaints about them. He stepped down this month as chairman of
a national committee studying the scandal for the U.S. bishops' conference.
The state's five dioceses have been providing authorities the names priests and staff accused of abuse, though prosecutors have often found the cases are too old for criminal charges.
The Archdiocese of Newark relieved two priests following
allegations of abuse or inappropriate conduct. The Trenton Diocese screened 50
years of records for sex abuse allegations, removed one priest and provided
authorities the names of 13. Camden Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio supplied
prosecutors the names of 19 priests, 12 of whom had already been named in
lawsuits against the diocese. The remainder were no longer active in the
ministry. One lawsuit against the diocese is being tried. Two priests in the
Metuchen Diocese have taken leaves of absence after the diocese learned of abuse
allegations, one dating back 20 years and the other to the 1950s and 1960s. The
Diocese of Paterson has placed two priests on administrative leave after
learning of allegations they had sexual contact with minors more than two
decades ago.
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe, covering most of New Mexico, was
battered by sex scandals in the early 1990s but has not been hit with "credible"
new accusations in recent years, Archbishop Michael Sheehan told a news
conference Friday. Even so, he said two priests have been removed in recent
weeks from parish duties, one based on old complaints and a second as a
precaution even though allegations were unsubstantiated from a third-person
source. Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces said his diocese sent a priest back
to New York, where he had been accused of abusing minors.
Soon after the Boston scandals erupted early the year, questions began to arise about clergy sex abuse in the New York City area.
With public scrutiny rising, the New York Archdiocese and the Brooklyn and Rockville Centre dioceses each turned over information about accusations against priests to district attorneys.
New York Cardinal Edward Egan has been criticized for his handling of allegations against priests when he was bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., and released a letter before the Vatican summit saying he apologized "if, in hindsight," he made any mistakes in handling such charges. The New York Archdiocese has also freed sex abuse victims from any legal promises they made to remain silent about their cases.
One priest on Long Island, the Rev. Michael Hands, was convicted in March of sodomizing a teen-age boy. He faces similar charges in Suffolk County.
Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota announced this month that a special grand jury would be formed to look solely at cases of sexual misconduct involving priests. He has said evidence collected so far indicates a possible cover-up.
In upstate New York, one priest has been reassigned to
administrative duties, another has resigned and a third is being investigated by
his diocese as the result of sex abuse allegations this year. The complaints all
date back a decade or more, and one is at least 30 years old.
The Diocese of Raleigh has removed three priests from their parishes after allegations surfaced against them; all the charges originated in other states where they worked.
The Diocese of Charlotte, meanwhile, relieved a priest of his duties last week at a Greensboro parish following allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior in another state.
Charlotte also placed another priest on administrative leave pending the outcome of an abuse investigation. It has also alerted authorities to at least three other cases from 25 years ago or longer.
The Charlotte Diocese confirmed this month that in the 1990s it used its money and insurance funds to pay parents who accused a priest of sexually abusing their sons.
The Raleigh Diocese held a day of prayer April 14 "for the
church in crisis."
Two western North Dakota priests were stripped of the power to perform sacraments and resigned parish posts after Bishop Paul Zipfel of Bismarck adopted a "zero tolerance" policy toward molestation in March. A third priest resigned as a seminary teacher and is under criminal investigation after telling Fargo Bishop Samuel Aquila in February that he had molested children while a parish priest.
The Bismarck Diocese said that two priests, Steve Zastoupil and Norman Dukart, had admitted molesting children decades ago and had been disciplined. Zipfel's new policy prompted him to ask both men to resign from their parishes. Prosecutors do not plan to file charges.
In the Fargo case, state Crime Bureau agents are interviewing
four families as they investigate the Rev. Charles Fischer's conduct while he
served parishes between 1995 and 2000. Aquila barred him from performing
sacraments, but Fischer has not been charged with a crime.
In the Cleveland Diocese, the Rev. Don A. Rooney killed himself earlier this month, just three days after being accused of a molesting a girl in 1980. Eleven priests have been suspended in Cleveland and an independent commission has been created to review policy.
In Cincinnati, prosecutors subpoenaed archdiocese records, and Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk was summoned before a county grand jury April 18.
He was excused from testifying because his office turned over
information which authorities were seeking. He is the only U.S. archbishop
subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury, according to a leading victims'
attorney.
The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City this month republished its 1991
policy regarding sexual abuse allegations from minors; the policy was printed in
its newspaper, the Sooner Catholic. The policy quotes an Oklahoma law requiring
mandatory reporting of such allegations to law enforcement officials. The
archdiocese continuously reviews the policy, said the Rev. Edward Weisenburger.
An 82-year-old priest, the Rev. Louis Charvet, was recalled to the Benedictine Abbey in Mount Angel this month pending an investigation of claims by 58-year-old David Schmidt that Charvet and another priest, who has since died, molested him in the 1950s.
Oregon Archbishop John Vlazny has publicly urged victims of
priest abuse to contact the archdiocese.
At least 23 active priests accused of abuse have been removed from assignments since Jan. 1 as a result of reviews by diocesan officials and new claims by alleged victims.
In all but a few cases, the allegations were decades old. District attorneys throughout the state have pressed church officials for more information on old cases, though the statute of limitations makes prosecutions unlikely.
Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua ordered priests to observe a "day of atonement" last Wednesday. The Philadelphia Archdiocese said in February that credible abuse allegations had been made against 35 priests over five decades.
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