David Ancell / Saturday August 14, 2004
In our diocesean newspaper, we have received a response to the recent lawsuit filed that I blogged about here. No one is denying that the sexual abuse occurred. However, I can’t help but notice something.
The Commercial Appeal made it sound like they had moved the friar to another area to avoid prosecutiion. The order maintains that the priest was immediately removed from ministry and was later dispensed from his vows (which removed him from the order). This is a far cry from what the media reported happened. At this point, I believe the prior rather than the local paper and will continue to do so until I am presented with evidence that suggests I shouldn’t.
There still remain two unanswered questions:
1. Why was there no criminal prosecution? There may be a good answer to this. The friar was probably not a U.S. Citizen, and he was sent back to his home country.
2. The response from the prior mentions his being dispensed from his vows. Was he also laicized? They aren’t the same thing, and the topic was omitted from the prior’s response. This could be either an accidental omission or something that was assumed in the letter, but I think we need to establish that the man is not in any ministry.
We’ll see what unfolds
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