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	Tucson Bishop Assures Protection from Abuse By Linda Garrett KGUN April 4, 2010 http://www.kgun9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12254043 TUCSON -- Prior to lighting the first candle of the Easter weekend, Bishop Gerald of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson spent a few minutes defending the Vatican's handling of two cases involving southern Arizona priests accused of sexual abuse of minors. "You know there are some that say that Cardinal Ratzinger and the Vatican have deliberately delayed or let languish the cases against Michael Teta and Robert Trupia to remove them from the clerical state and that is simply not true," Kicanas said. In newly released documents relating to those cases, Pope Benedict, who was then a cardinal who oversaw complaints of abuse referred to the pope for consideration, is accused of waiting years to remove those priests from the ministry. While some suspect a cover-up, the bishop says the cardinal was following proper church procedures. Inconsequent the timing of the documents released and the source of the information. "The documents were released to the media from plaintiff lawyers who have had these materials for many years. What's important is the context of those letters," Kicanas said. Those letters he says included three separate requests from the pope asking then Tucson diocese Bishop Moreno to move the cases along. Kicanas blames the delay in removing Teta on Teta himself. Teta used church rules to appeal his case through the church over a period of several years. While some would like to see the pope publicly apologize, others say these recently published findings haven't affected their faith in the local diocese. John Lindstrom said, "I'm sure they're doing the best to handle the situation." Kicanas said the church has taken measures to prevent this type of abuse from happening again. "We have now screening of all of our personnel and thousands of volunteers at our parishes and schools. We have education now for our young people. And we investigate allegations of abuse carefully." Contact: lgarrett@kgun9.com
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