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Thursday, April 25, 2002

By Ann Rodgers-Melnick and Ernie Hoffman, Post-Gazette Staff Writers

The steps proposed by the U.S. cardinals to rid the Roman Catholic Church of priests who molest minors are already in use in Pittsburgh and Greensburg, diocesan officials said yesterday.

"I think what I heard was largely an articulation of our present policy," said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Greensburg Bishop Anthony Bosco said he agreed with a one-strike-and-you're-out policy.

"We have already operated on that principle. In our old [cases], that's exactly what we did," Bosco told reporters in Greensburg.

Pittsburgh has also followed a one-strike policy, most recently last month when Bishop Donald Wuerl removed from ministry "several" unidentified priests against whom a single credible but unsubstantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor had been made in the past.

Until last month, if an accusation came down to the word of one credible accuser against a denial from a priest with a clean record, he remained in ministry.

Pittsburgh policy allows for the possibility that an offender who has undergone successful, ongoing therapy could return to closely supervised nonparish ministry if everyone else knew his history and agreed to work with him. But no priest is in ministry under those circumstances, Lengwin said.

That provision, however, could be used for some of the recently removed priests, he said.

Wuerl will support a proposal at the meeting of U.S. bishops in June to make it faster and easier to laicize a priest against his will, Lengwin said. Laicization -- removing a man from the obligations and status of priesthood -- is the strongest step the church can take against a priest.

In 1993, the Vatican's highest court ordered Wuerl to reinstate an accused pedophile to ministry. Wuerl refused, but it took three years for the Vatican to confirm that he had made the right decision.

The cardinals agreed that laity must serve on the boards that make recommendations about the future of accused priests.

The boards in Pittsburgh and Greensburg are composed mostly of laity and include psychotherapists, social workers and lawyers. The parent of a child who was molested by a priest is one of the 12 lay members of the 14-member Pittsburgh board, Lengwin said.

Earlier this month, Bosco removed three priests from ministry after his review board studied decades-old allegations of sexual abuse and recommended the action.

Bosco said he liked what he heard yesterday from Rome, but said they were only recommendations for guidelines to be discussed in June by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He expects the message from Rome will carry a great deal of weight then.

Bosco said he has implemented a zero-tolerance policy and does not believe the civil statute of limitations frees the church from protecting people against priests who sexually abuse children or adults, no matter when it happened.

The first concern of the diocese, he said, must be for the victims. The second, he said, is the permanent removal of the priest when the accusation is substantiated.

The church also should involve the police, Bosco said.

Neither the Pittsburgh nor Greensburg diocese pays to defend any such priest who is sued in civil court.

But Bosco also said he believes the diocese would be obliged to provide rehabilitation for any priest found to be a sexual abuser.

In the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, spokeswoman Sister Mary Parks said yesterday that she doubted that diocesan officials would embrace an across-the-board edict in which any single offense could be deemed a career-ending transgression.

When it comes to infractions, Parks said, one size doesn't fit all.

"Allegations range from improper looks and improper conversation to rape," she said.

"They range from very serious charges to some that are not very serious at all but that still have to be investigated. ... Can you have one thing in place that covers every eventuality, because every eventuality is different?"

Staff writer Tom Gibb contributed to this report.