BishopAccountability.org
	More Allegations of Abuse by Former Erie Bishop By Ann Rodgers Pittsburgh Post-Gazette July 14, 2010 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10195/1072550-455.stm More allegations of child sexual abuse against the late Bishop Donald Davis of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania have surfaced since the current bishop revealed four cases on Sunday and urged other victims to come forward. "I now know about the possibility of more than five additional complaints," Episcopal Bishop Sean Rowe of Erie said in a statement released Tuesday. "In the days to come, I may hear from more. "All of these women are in my prayers, and I ask that you include them in yours. I am going to spend the next several weeks talking with women who come forward, and working with them on how best to foster their healing and reconciliation." What was originally known as the Diocese of Erie split from the Diocese of Pittsburgh a century ago. Bishop Davis presided over the 13-county diocese from 1974 to 1991. In 1994 he resigned from the House of Bishops due to abuse allegations. But those allegations weren't made public until Sunday, when a letter from Bishop Rowe was read in all 34 of his congregations. Bishop Davis was 78 when he died in Florida in 2007. The allegations stem from the 1970s and 1980s, and involve female victims as young as 10. At least three incidents took place at Camp Nazareth in Mercer County, an Eastern Orthodox facility that the Episcopal diocese rented for a week each summer. One of the new accusers also contacted the Erie Times-News, saying that she was 10 when Bishop Davis kissed her while they were in a camp swimming pool. He asked her to come to his cabin later, she said, but she was frightened and hid. She later told her mother, and Bishop Davis paid the family several hundred dollars, she said. The woman told the Times-News that she spent years in counseling because of the incident and it had turned her away from church. She said that after she e-mailed Bishop Rowe, he offered to meet with her, but that she had no interest in doing so. In an interview Tuesday, Bishop Rowe, who has led the Erie diocese since 2007, declined to give specifics about the women who had come forward, including an exact number. "I believe it's the victim's story to tell. I don't want to do anything to violate their confidentiality," he said. "Certainly their trust has been violated by a bishop and I don't want to do anything to violate the trust that we are beginning to build." He is considering several formal responses, including a possible liturgy to acknowledge the abuse. "Right now our focus is on determining the scope of this abuse, talking with victims and working through this so that we can know what would be an appropriate response," he said. Bishop Rowe said that the diocesan council had been working on ways to make it easier for victims to report church-based abuse and misconduct to the diocese when an allegation about Bishop Davis surfaced in March. The diocese follows best-practice guidelines published by the Church Pension Group, the insurance company for the Episcopal Church, he said. Those require any church employee or volunteer who works with minors to go through prevention training and criminal background checks. It lists inappropriate behavior ranging from sharing a bed with a minor to giving piggyback rides. It also says that, "All church personnel are required by this policy to report known or suspected abuse of children or youth to the appropriate state authorities." The alleged perpetrator is dead and the cases appear to be past the statute of limitations. But "we will be cooperating with law enforcement and the district attorney as appropriate," Bishop Rowe said. Contact: arodgers@post-gazette.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.