Bishop Paprocki Defends Springfield Diocese's Record on Sex Abuse Claims
By Chris Dettro
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Springfield Catholic diocese on Tuesday defended its handling of sex abuse cases involving church personnel and said that a news conference held last week by two groups critical of the diocese caught him off guard. Paprocki also said that the Litchfield phone number assigned to six priests withdrawn from their Chicago parishes that appeared in an Official Catholic Directory in the 1990s was apparently a clerical or computer-generated error. He said the priests were never assigned to the Springfield diocese nor were they ever licensed by the bishop for the ministry in this diocese. He criticized the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) for its approach to what it considered a potential danger, saying he wasn’t contacted before the group’s news conference to explain the phone number. “There was no advance notice of this press conference,” he said. “They did not ask for an explanation beforehand or at all.” David Clohessy, director of SNAP, said the diocese wasn’t contacted beforehand because “typically and unfortunately, Bishop Paprocki previously has ignored our letters and wouldn’t respond to our requests.” “What works is making direct, public appeals to victims,” Clohessy said. Paprocki said he has talked with SNAP in the past and has tried to respond to correspondence. Number glitch SNAP and Call to Action of Central Illinois also alleged that two “predator priests” — the Rev. Frank R. Martinez and the Rev. James Fitzgerald — spent time in the Springfield diocese. Paprocki said that over the last several days, he has asked his staff to investigate SNAP’s allegations. “I want to know,” he said. “I wasn’t here, and I asked them to do the research. I didn’t want to be surprised.” Paprocki said that Martinez, from the Davenport, Iowa, diocese, was appointed chaplain at St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur on Oct. 7, 1985, and on Nov. 11, 1985, resigned effective Dec. 25 of that same year. “There were no allegations against Father Martinez known to the Diocese of Springfield prior to his assignment here,” Paprocki said. He said the first allegation of sexual misconduct against Martinez wasn’t until 1986, when he was accused of propositioning a 15-year-old boy in a motel room. Fitzgerald was at St. Joseph Novitiate in Godfrey from 1951 to 1953, long before there were any allegations against him, Paprocki said. Fitzgerald didn’t live or work in the diocese after 1953, Paprocki said. Paprocki, who was appointed to Springfield in 2010, said he was familiar with the cases of the other six priests named by SNAP from his prior work in Chicago. “From my own personal knowledge and according to our files here, none of these priests was ever assigned to the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois,” Paprocki said “None of these men received faculties (licenses to minister) for this diocese.” He said the six men, however, were listed in the directory in 1993 as having the same Litchfield phone number — as were more than 250 other priests. The only Catholic institutions in Litchfield in 1993 were Holy Family Parish and St. Francis Hospital, and neither phone number was the same as the number listed for the six priests, he said. Paprocki said further searches of the directory on the Chicago Archdiocese’s pages under categories such as “graduate studies,” absent on sick leave,” “on duty outside the diocese” and five other categories found the names of 277 priests listed. By cross-checking their names, Paprocki’s staff found that the same Litchfield phone number was listed for 265 of those priests. “The repetition of this phone same number for 265 priests is clearly a mistake,” Paprocki said. Long-standing policy The Rev. John Hannigan from Chicago, against whom no allegations were ever made, was serving at St. Maurice Parish in Morrisonville in 1993 and was listed as living in a house in Litchfield with the same number as the other 264 priests, Paprocki said. Hannigan had been given permission to work in the Springfield diocese so he could assist his mother, who also lived at the same Litchfield address. “It is clear that the listing of this same phone number for 265 priests from Chicago, including the six named by SNAP, supposedly living at a private home in Litchfield, is a typographical mistake or a computer word-processing error,” Paprocki said. “We said there could be an explanation,” Clohessy said. “I hope they (the six priests) didn’t spend a day in the Springfield diocese.” Paprocki said that his predecessor, Archbishop George Lucas, who served as bishop from 1999 to 2009, “has assured me he never accepted a priest for public ministry in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois nor gave faculties to any priest who was known to have abused a minor.” “Some members of religious orders who may have had credible allegations of abuse were in residence in their communities and did not have public ministry,” Paprocki said. He said that Lucas’ immediate predecessor, Bishop Daniel Ryan (1984-1999), also said he never accepted a priest for ministry “who was knowingly accused of sexual misconduct with a minor.” Paprocki said the diocese has a long-established policy not to allow any priest guilty of the abuse of a minor to be involved in public ministry. “That policy remains in effect today,” he said. “To our knowledge, there is no priest, deacon, religious sister or brother or lay person in ministry in our diocese against whom a credible allegation of child sexual abuse has been made." He said the diocese has a code of conduct for employees and volunteers who work with children, as well as clergy and religious leaders who work with children. All priests, lay ecclesial ministers, educators, church personnel, parents and volunteers are required to attend training and undergo a criminal history background check, he said,. Who to call? Paprocki encouraged individuals to report allegations of sexual abuse of a minor by clergy, either past or present, by calling the diocese’s Child Abuse Reporting and Investigation number at (217) 321-1155. Individuals also may contact the state Department of Children and Family Services Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-2873, he said. Clohessy, on the other hand, said any reporting of sexual abuse of minors by church officials “should start with law enforcement.” “If that fails, then and only then should they call church officials,” he said. “Contact police, prosecutors, therapists — someone who is unbiased.
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