23 Philly Priests Still Suspended after 1 Year

York Dispatch
March 6, 2012

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/penn/ci_20113331/23-philly-priests-limbo-after-1-year-suspension

A year after the Philadelphia archdiocese suspended nearly two dozen priests amid an outcry over a second scathing grand jury report on child sexual abuse, those priests remain in limbo.

The archdiocese last March suspended 23 active priests with sexual abuse accusations in their files, and hired a former sex-crimes prosecutor to review them. In September, new Archbishop Charles Chaput pledged to make "good judgments" as quickly as possible. He said the suspensions leave many people on hold—victims, priests and parishioners alike.

"It's not good for anybody to be left hanging," Chaput told The Associated Press. "It's not good for the victim, it's not good for the families of the victim, it's not good for the priests or the parishes that they serve.

Yet the archdiocese isn't commenting on when the latest internal review might be finished, citing a gag order in a related criminal case.

Monsignor William Lynn, the former secretary for clergy, is charged with child endangerment and conspiracy for allegedly transferring accused priests to new assignments. He goes on trial March 26, along with a priest and former priest charged with rape. The charges grew out of the second grand jury report, released in January 2011.

The report accused the archdiocese of failing to weed out potential predators even after a 2005 grand jury report had blasted the archdiocese for protecting dozens of accused child molesters over several decades. It found at least 41 accused priests still in active ministry between 2005 and 2010. The complaints ranged from sexual abuse to molestation to "boundary issues" involving children.

The Philadelphia Inquirer noted Tuesday that parishioners at Sacred Heart in suburban Swedesburg, like many other area Catholics, have no word on the yearlong investigation of their lone priest. The archdiocese has sent an administrator to help out, while area priests fill in for the Rev. Andrew McCormick at weekend Masses.

"We only had one priest," Bernard Gutkowski, president of the parish men's group, told the Inquirer. "Father Andy was it."

The group has stayed in touch with their pastor, sharing the occasional dinner.

"He's frustrated," Gutkowski told the newspaper. "He doesn't know what's going on. We don't know what's going on."

Not all of the suspended priests have kept up those ties.

"When it involves allegations of abuse of children, there's such a stigma," said the Rev. Chris Walsh, who started the independent Association of Philadelphia Priests last year to share information on the sex-abuse crisis. "As a priest, your world is people you've ministered with, and ministered to. For many of these guys, they're isolated from priests, also, because of the embarrassment."

The grand jury report alleged that the accused priests were often still in ministry because of lax investigations by internal church review boards.

"The review board finds allegations 'unsubstantiated' even when there is very convincing evidence that the accusations are true," city prosecutors wrote in the 2011 grand jury report.

In its wake, the archdiocese hired former Philadelphia prosecutor Gina Maisto Smith to revisit complaints involving active priests. The priests were suspended pending the completion of her work.

Smith did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking a status update.

Walsh knows several of the idled priests, and said some have been through separate investigations by the internal review board.

"I just really want this done well, for everyone involved," Walsh said. "The (question) is, when is this going to be done?"