Bishop Walsh Says Files Show Nothing about Accused Priest's Past, Press Democrat, August 23 2010

Bishop Walsh Says Files Show Nothing about Accused Priest's Past

Press Democrat
August 23 2010

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100823/ARTICLES/100829845?Title=Bishop-Walsh-says-files-show-nothing-about-accused-priest-s-past

Bishop Daniel Walsh, pictured here in his Santa Rosa office in 2007, said there are no files that indicate local church leaders knew of former Rev. Patrick McCabe's troubles before assigning him to a parish within the diocese.

The head of the Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa said Monday there is no indication local church officials knew the former Rev. Patrick J. McCabe had been treated for pedophilia before he was assigned to a Eureka parish in the 1980s where he is accused of fondling a boy.

Bishop Daniel Walsh said a search of internal files for documents that may have tipped his predecessor, the late Bishop Mark Hurley, to McCabe's alleged penchant for children yielded “nothing to indicate anything wrong.”

An official report by the Archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland on abusive priests said Hurley sent McCabe to St Bernard Church in 1983 at the request of the archbishop of Dublin who asked him to “rid me of this troublesome priest.”

Before he arrived, McCabe was treated for pedophilia at a New Mexico clinic and placed on drugs to curb his sexual impulses.

Walsh said there was nothing on record today that indicates Hurley knew McCabe's history. Hurley died in 2001.

“Whether Bishop Hurley knew, I do not know,” said Walsh, who took over in 2000. “He's dead. I cannot ask him.”

It was the first public comment from Walsh since a former Eureka altar boy sued the diocese last week, claiming fraud and negligence in assigning McCabe there from 1983-1985. The now 36-year-old plaintiff alleges church officials knew McCabe's background but placed him anyway, subjecting him to molestations while he was a third-grade student.

The man came forward after 26 years of silence after reading that McCabe, 74, had been arrested and was in Alameda County jail awaiting extradition to Ireland to answer charges he molested six boys from 1973 to 1981.

Walsh would not comment on the lawsuit, saying the diocese had not yet been served with it, nor would he comment on McCabe or the international scandal facing the church.

Hurley led the diocese from 1969-1987. He testified that he tore up all confidential personnel records before leaving office, an act noted in the Irish report. He further admitted shielding priests from prosecution.

“I've never gone to the police,” Hurley said in a 1995 deposition. “I think there's a danger in that and therefore, I have never reported anything on anybody to the police.”