Phila. Archdiocese Dismisses Priests
6 dismissed in pre-emptive move; reaction to Boston scandal
Originally published by Reuters, February 23, 2002
PHILADELPHIA — Responding to a child molestation scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has dismissed as many as half a dozen priests for allegedly sexually assaulting children, a church official said on Saturday.
The Archdiocese, which represents 1.4 million parishioners in five southeastern Pennsylvania counties, said the clergymen were among 35 archdiocesan priests who have faced credible sex-abuse allegations over the past 50 years in cases involving 47 children.
About six priests, who were dismissed during the past two weeks, had all been accused of having sexual contact with teen-age boys as young as 13 over a 30-year period. They had been given counseling or treatment and assigned to restrictive ministry posts that barred contact with youths.
POLICY REVIEW
"In light of what happened in Boston, we began to review our files and policy. We realized we could not supervise someone in restrictive ministry, and it would be better to eliminate even limited ministries where there were credible allegations," said archdiocese spokeswoman Catherine Rossi.
"We now have no priests that we know of serving in the archdiocese who has been accused of having contact with a minor," she added.
Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law had been widely condemned for a child molestation scandal that has embroiled the church in recent months. This week, a defrocked priest was sentenced to spend up to 10 years in prison for sexually abusing a boy—one of more than 130 people he allegedly had illicit sexual contact with over his 30-year career as a priest.
The Boston archdiocese also has released to authorities the names of 80 priests who abused children in recent decades. Nine have been suspended.
ACCUSED PRIESTS RETIRED
The 35 Philadelphia archdiocesan priests accused over the past five decades are dead or retired, or have left the priesthood. In the latest half-dozen cases, Rossi said, the priests either stepped forward about their behavior or were accused after a state-imposed statute of limitations for child-molestation cases had expired.
"They're now with their families or in transitional living conditions," she said. "They've been removed from active ministry and urged to return to the lay state."
The archdiocese notifies authorities of child abuse cases reported by minors. But in cases brought forward by parents, Pennsylvania law allows the church to let the family decide whether to notify police.
The Philadelphia archdiocese has paid $200,000 for settlements with people alleging abuse by diocesan priests over the past decade. Pennsylvania law bars lawsuits seeking damage for childhood sexual abuse after the victim turns 20 years of age.
The last reported sex-abuse case in the Philadelphia archdiocese involved an archdiocesan priest who had served as a high school principal. He pleaded guilty in 1998 to a charge alleging that he hugged, kissed and took to bed an adolescent boy over a three-year period. He was sentenced to five years' probation and has since been named, along with the archdiocese, as a defendant in a civil suit stemming from the case.
N.J. CASES SETTLED
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Saturday that in the neighboring Diocese of Camden, N.J., where there are no age limits on lawsuits, church authorities paid $3.2 million between 1990 and 1993 to settle lawsuits filed by 15 alleged abuse victims, all of them men.
The Camden diocese is facing a class-action suit brought by another 19 men in New Jersey, the state that enacted Megan's Law, against sexual predators.
