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	Role of Pope's Ex-Deputy in Priest Case Questioned By Vanessa Fuhrmans Wall Street Journal April 21, 2010 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704448304575196482519443598.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_World The former deputy to Pope Benedict XVI when the pontiff was the Munich archbishop rebutted suggestions made in letters written by a friend that he had been pushed into taking sole responsibility for reassigning a pedophile priest to active ministry 30 years ago. The Rev. Gerhard Gruber, in an interview, also detailed his decision to reassign the priest to pastoral work just weeks after he was transferred to Munich for therapy because of allegations of sexual abuse in another diocese. The case has captured particular attention since it came to light last month because the pope was archbishop at the time, and the priest was later convicted of fresh allegations of molesting children. Publicly, Father Gruber has said little about the matter since a press release was issued by the Munich archdiocese last month saying he bore "full responsibility" for reassigning the abusive priest during the pope's tenure as archbishop. Privately, in correspondence with friends, the 81-year-old former vicar general has stood by the press statement but at the same time chafed at how an archdiocese spokesman described his role. Earlier this month, a confidante of Father Gruber sent a letter to a small circle of mutual theologian friends raising questions about the circumstances of Father Gruber's statement in the press release. Walter Romahn, a former academic who studied at the same pontifical college in Rome as Father Gruber, wrote that Father Gruber had told him in a phone call that he had been pressured to take sole responsibility for the handling of the priest. Mr. Romahn added in the letter that he was sharing their conversation because he worried his friend was now caught in a "loyalty conflict." The correspondence, earlier reported by Germany's Der Spiegel, was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Father Gruber, reached at his home in Munich, sought to clarify his discontent with how his role has been portrayed and denied the assertion that he had said he had been urged or pushed into taking full responsibility for the priest's reassignment. It was his decision, he said, to reassign the priest, the Rev. Peter Hullermann, soon after his arrival in Munich, which he says he discussed and agreed upon with the archdiocese's personnel director at the time, the Rev. Friedrich Fahr, now deceased. "I took the responsibility because I signed the [reassignment] documents," he said. He added that he didn't discuss the decision with the future pope, then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger. Father Gruber sought to explain the decision to reassign Father Hullermann to a local parish soon after he had been transferred to Munich for psychiatric treatment after several parents in the Essen Diocese had alleged he had sexually molested their sons. "It wasn't an automatic decision whatsoever," he said, "but one based on the established preconditions and assumptions at the time." For a priest who'd "done something terrible," expressed regret and was determined to be rehabilitated, "it was common to give them another chance," he said. That Father Hullermann had been willing to undergo therapy helped to "build the conviction" that he might be suitable for active ministry again, Father Gruber said. In a letter dated April 8 to his circle of theologian friends, Father Gruber explained that although the therapist assigned to Father Hullermann had spoken of risks, he had also said "a positive outcome from the therapy couldn't be ruled out." Father Gruber, though, said he had protested an archdiocese spokesman's remark that Father Gruber had "acted on his own authority" in reassigning the priest. That wording, he said, "was never agreed upon with me" and he feared it could be interpreted by the public as the vicar general acting arbitrarily, outside the powers of his office. Father Gruber said that although his friend Mr. Romahn "meant well" by writing the letters, he had partly misunderstood him. Father Gruber said he had described how on March 12, the day he was asked to approve and make any changes to a draft of the archdiocese press release on the Hullermann incident, he was under "time pressure"—but not pressured to sign off on something he didn't agree with. An archdiocese spokesman said Father Gruber wasn't requested or urged to take responsibility for the reassignment, only that he was asked whether he would state so publicly. Separately, German church officials said a priest who had been assigned to a post in Washington, D.C., to minister to Germans abroad was suspended and ordered back to Germany amid allegations that he had sexually abused teenage girls, all at least 14 or older, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The diocese of Mainz said the Schoenstatt Institute of Diocesan Priests, to which the priest belonged, had been approached by one of the girls in 2004 but didn't pass the allegations to higher church officials until late last month. Diocese officials said they've since handed over the information to local prosecutors and that the priest is suspended until the claims are resolved. Contact: vanessa.fuhrmans@wsj.com
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