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Tuesday, March 11, 2003

By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. -- The bishop of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown defended himself from allegations of letting pedophile priests go unfettered, acknowledging in a diocesan newspaper mailed yesterday that he has active priests accused of molestation -- but none against whom charges were proven "despite active investigation."

Bishop Joseph Adamec, writing in the biweekly Catholic Register, told the diocese -- shaken by two new lawsuits detailing abuse allegations against 11 priests -- that pedophilia "will not be tolerated" and that episodes cited so far were supposed to have occurred before his 15-year watch.

But, he lamented, "no matter what or how much I do, it is not going to be the right thing or enough in everyone's eyes."

It wasn't.

The leader of a national coalition of abuse victims said the statement shows Adamec, unlike other bishops, refusing to shoulder blame for mistakes in handling abuse cases.

And the Altoona attorney who authored the new lawsuits said the bishop's accounting suggests that he failed to forward the cases to criminal or civil authorities.

"They say they didn't do anything wrong," said lawyer Richard Serbin, whose lawsuits charge the diocese with an ongoing cover-up. "I guess that's what a trial is going to determine."

"Almost no bishop in the country so steadfastly refuses to acknowledge even a single mistake," David Clohessy, national director of St. Louis-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said after reading Adamec's statement. "There's not a shred of remorse whatsoever."

The bishop's statement -- distributed to the eight-county diocese's 113,000 Catholics through the Register, and available online at www.diocesealtjtn.org/news -- lists handling of accusations against 13 priests.

Eleven of those cases previously were detailed in Serbin's lawsuits and in a 1994 civil trial against one of the clerics; a 12th was first reported last week by The Tribune-Democrat of Johns-town. Adamec's accounts carry little of the detail offered in the lawsuits -- ranging from allegations of repeated complaints to an assertion that Adamec's predecessor told one suspect priest to "keep his big mouth shut" about his case.

Some of the 13 priests Adamec names were accused as recently as this year, but according to the bishop, all were tied to transgressions dating before he assumed leadership of the diocese in 1987.

Of the 13, only the Rev. Robert Kelly, pastor of SS. Peter & Paul Church in Philipsburg, Centre County, remains active -- a cleric who denied allegations and whose psychological evaluations "failed to substantiate concern," Adamec said.

Of the other 12, the bishop's tally says four are dead, two are suspended from all duties, one was forced out of the priesthood, one is on administrative leave pending investigation and four are out of public priesthood -- in private homes or retirement quarters, told not to represent themselves in public as priests.

"In the past, I have taken the advice of professional evaluators as to whether ... [a priest] would need to leave active ministry altogether," Adamec wrote.

Guidelines adopted by American bishops last year tighten the standards, he said. But standards to date -- in one case, installing a priest as a hospital chaplain until last year -- weren't tight enough, Serbin said.

Two weeks ago, the diocese announced that Sister Marilyn Welch had been named diocesan victims advocate for molestation victims.