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Anonymous Wrote:
7:10am -- New Gallup Bishop Launches Probe of Priests
By Bruce Daniels - ABQnewsSeeker
Albuquerque Journal
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Backgrounds of all active, retired, former or deceased
clergy being checked for sex abuse.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup is checking into the
backgrounds of some 400 active, retired, former or deceased
priests in the diocese to see whether there is any history
of sexual abuse, KOAT-TV reported.
http://www.koat.com/news/19446119/detail.html
The diocese's newly installed Bishop James Wall called for
the probe, saying all priests who are serving or who have
served will undergo a thorough background check and if any
wrongdoing is exposed, the priest will be removed and the
public given a full explanation why, Action 7 News said.
Officials insisted the investigation is not a witch hunt,
but said the review is a way to restore confidence among
the faithful and to reaffirm the integrity of those priests
in good standing in the diocese, KOAT-TV said.
The diocese said it is about a third of the way through its
background checks of active priests and that the findings
will be released this fall, the station said.
"This is a much-belated, long overdue step that should have
taken place years and years ago," David Clohessy, the St.
Louis-based national director of Survivors Network of those
Abused by Priests (SNAP), said in a news release. "We
firmly believe the files will show that a number of church
employees -- current and former, lay and ordained, living
and deceased -- who concealed and ignored knowledge or
suspicion of abuse."
Clohessy said the test of whether the bishop is sincere
will be whether he disciplines them, according to the
release.
The diocese said the review was prompted by an
investigation into the Rev. John Boland, a priest at a
Cuba, N.M., church, who was accused of child sexual abuse
in 1983 when he was a priest in Arizona, then moved to New
Mexico after the charges were reportedly dropped, KOAT-TV
said.
The Boland case only recently came to light when Phoenix
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, who was serving as apostolic
administrator in Gallup following last year's retirement of
Bishop Donald Pelotte, was reviewing Boland's file in
connection with his transfer to another assignment and
discovered the 1983 allegations, according to an
Albuquerque Journal story last month by Olivier
Uyttebrouck.
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/1922498state04-19-09.htm
Olmstead placed Boland on administrative leave in February,
citing a U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops directive in 2002
requiring a diocese to investigate any abuse allegations as
soon as they are discovered, the Journal reported.
Boland remains on administrative leave pending the outcome
of the investigation into his case, according to KOAT-TV.
COMMENTS:
Jay Nelson 5 hours ago
Good luck finding anything in the personnel files! They've
probably been thoroughly weeded already.
The bishop would have much better luck looking into the
Secret Archives, but that would displease the Pope and set
a very bad precedent. But even if the bishop did, it
wouldn't matter.
Because as long as justice is left up to the Catholic
Church to decide, nothing will change. It's why this sordid
mess happened to begin with!
More at:
http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/abqnewseeker-mainmenu-39/12447-710am-new-gall up-bishop-launches-probe-of-priests.html
Jai Maharaj
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http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
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The truth about Islam and Muslims
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