BishopAccountability.org
	Borders Named in Lawsuits Claiming Sex Abuse Coverup By Orlando Sentinel and Sandy Alexander Baltimore Sun September 13, 2005 Retired Baltimore Archbishop William D. Borders was accused in two lawsuits yesterday of covering up charges of sexual abuse against a Catholic priest in his diocese while he was bishop of Orlando, Fla. The lawsuits against the Diocese of Orlando, filed by two men in Florida's Orange County Circuit Court, allege that the Rev. Vernon F. Uhran sexually abused them at three Orlando-area churches and on a cross-country road trip in the early 1970s. The unnamed plaintiffs, each seeking $5 million in damages, charge that Borders received reports of the abuse but did not discipline Uhran and concealed the information. The diocese transferred Uhran from parish to parish, "where he continued to have unfettered access to minors and was permitted to have frequent sleepovers in the Rectories," the lawsuits state. Borders served as archbishop of Orlando from its creation in 1968 until 1974, and was archbishop of Baltimore from 1974 until retiring in 1989. Sean Caine, a spokesman for the Archdiocese Of Baltimore, said he had not spoken to the 91-year-old Borders, but believed the archbishop would agree with the Orlando diocese's statement that "child sexual abuse is both criminal and sinful." "Our top priority should be on outreach to victims and prevention of abuse," Caine said, particularly through the church's "safe environment" programs established for that purpose.