By Catalina Camia
Usa Today
May 11, 2011
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/05/house-chaplain-patrick-conroy-sex-abuse-/1
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| House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took a second look at the Rev. Patrick Conroy, tapped to be the next House chaplain. |
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has completed a second look at a Catholic priest tapped to be the next House chaplain and sees "no obstacle" to him taking the post.
Earlier, the California Democrat was reviewing "new information" about the Rev. Patrick Conroy, following a news report that he works for a Jesuit group that has paid the largest sex-abuse settlement of any Roman Catholic religious order.
"Father Conroy has responded to additional questions posed to him. Based on his answers, the Leader sees no obstacle to him being named chaplain," Drew Hammill, Pelosi's press secretary, said in a statement this evening.
Conroy was announced last week by House Speaker John Boehner as his choice to be House chaplain. Boehner, R-Ohio, said he consulted with Pelosi about Conroy's appointment.
Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Congress, first reported that Pelosi was reconsidering her support for Conroy because she had not been told about the settlement.
Conroy is a member of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, known as the Northwest Jesuits, which agreed in March to pay $166 million to more than 500 victims of sexual abuse. Conroy was not a priest at the time of the abuse in the 1960s and 1970s and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Hammill said earlier today that "additional information" had come up "that neither Mr. Boehner's office or our office had" when Conroy was first vetted for the chaplain's post.
Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, decried what he called "guilt by association."
"It's disgraceful. The settlement has nothing to do with Father Conroy," Steel said. "It is public knowledge, reported in The New York Times, among other media outlets. Both Speaker Boehner and Democratic leader Pelosi reviewed Father Conroy's background before the speaker selected him. The speaker is confident he will be a great chaplain for the House of Representatives."
The Times reported that the settlement paid by the Northwest Jesuits is one of the largest ever within the Catholic Church. It is significant in part because it was paid for by a religious order and not a church diocese.
The Jesuits are the largest religious order in the Catholic Church.
Many of the victims in the Pacific Northwest were American Indians and Alaska Natives who were abused in the 1960s and 1970s at an Indian boarding school, the Times reported.
Conroy, 60, entered the Society of Jesus in 1973 was ordained in 1983. He teaches at Jesuit High School in Portland and did stints as chaplain at Georgetown University and Seattle University.
The House chaplain opens the day's proceedings on Capitol Hill with a prayer and provides counseling and pastoral services to members of Congress and their staffs.
Conroy was tapped to succeed the Rev. Daniel Coughlin, also a Catholic priest, who retired.
Boehner said last week he would submit Conroy's nomination to the full House for consideration sometime later this month.
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