Critics: List of priests accused of sexual abuse should be longer

By Corina Curry And Kevin Haas
Rockford Register Star
November 15, 2018

https://bit.ly/2DLF4ZZ

The Diocese of Rockford released a list of clergy members accused of sexual abuse on Wednesday. Some critics say the list is incomplete, including a Roscoe man who alleges abuse while he was at St. Anthony of Padua church in the 1960s. This file photo from April 2009 shows Mass at St. Anthony. Photo by KATY MULL

Sid Pauletto said he was abused by a priest at St. Anthony of Padua church in Rockford in the 1960s. Photo by GARY CARLSON

When the Diocese of Rockford released a list Wednesday of clergy members accused of sexual abuse, Sid Pauletto searched for the name of the priest who he said abused him more than 50 years ago.

It wasn’t there.

There are four other clergy members publicly accused of abuse who are not on the diocese’s list, including the priest Pauletto identified. Pauletto, along with advocates for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy members, have criticized the diocese’s list as incomplete and renewed calls for an independent investigation of sexual abuse by priests.

The diocese named 15 clergy members on Wednesday, covering a span from 1908 to today. The only names listed are those associated with cases in which the diocese says it found some proof of the allegations.

The list supports the diocese’s claim that those working in the diocese today have done nothing wrong, said Penny Weigert, director of communications for the diocese.

“It proves what we have said,” Weigert said. “Anyone with a credible accusation against them is not in our ministry.”

Still, Pauletto believes that his complaint was never given the attention it deserved. He said he was never questioned after coming forward and is not aware of any investigation.

“It just pisses me off that they’re pushing it off like it never happened,” said Pauletto, 67, who now lives in Roscoe.

Meanwhile, the Illinois Attorney General’s office continues its investigation into clergy sexual abuse within the state’s six Catholic dioceses, including Rockford.

Weigert and representatives from the attorney general’s office said the diocese is cooperating with the investigation.

State Attorney General Lisa Madigan launched a clergy sex abuse hotline in August after a grand jury report issued in Pennsylvania detailed the cover-up of child sex abuse by priests over a period of 70 years and brought renewed attention to clergy abuse. To date, the office has received 126 emails and 160 phone calls, a spokeswoman said.

One of those calls was from Pauletto.

Pauletto said he was abused in the 1960s by the Rev. Edwin Banach of St. Anthony of Padua church in Rockford.

He doesn’t recall the year, but he says his memory of the incident is crystal clear. He was in class — a fourth- or fifth-grader — when he was called to visit Banach in his quarters. He said the priest initially asked him for a massage. Then Banach removed his pants and forced the boy to touch him inappropriately.

It was a memory Pauletto suppressed until 2002, when the Boston Globe published its Pulitzer-Prize winning investigation of widespread child sex abuse by Catholic priests in the Boston area.

“All of a sudden, it was clear as day,” Pauletto said.

He took his story to the Rev. Luke Poczworowski, pastor at St. Anthony, who told parishioners about the allegation against Banach at Masses in August 2002. Poczworowski said Banach was accused of misconduct with two boys.

During the time of the alleged abuse, the diocese did not run the church. The Conventual Franciscans of St. Bonaventure Province operated St. Anthony from 1963 to 1970. Banach worked there in the 1960s. He died in 1984.

The late Rev. Ted Feely, another Franciscan priest assigned to St. Anthony’s in the 1960s, also was accused of sexual abuse. Feely is named on the diocese list.

“Unfortunately, this is a story we have heard before,” said Melanie Sakoda, a board member for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. “We have heard it often in cases where priests are deceased and the allegation came forward after the priest died. ... Almost everyone’s list is incomplete, and the rationale is always the same — the priest is dead, or that priest wasn’t ours or that allegation didn’t happen here.”

Ten of the 15 clergy on the diocese’s list are dead. Seven were removed from ministry before their deaths.

Bishopaccountability.com hosts a database of publicly accused priests from across the U.S. The database contains the names of 10 clergy associated with the Diocese of Rockford. Six were on the diocese’s list. Four others — Banach, James Graynor, Al F. Harte and Alfredo Pedraza-Arias — were not.

Sakoda said she doesn’t understand why the four names were left off the diocese’s list, especially Pedraza-Arias, who according to several news reports was charged criminally and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge before being deported.

“The diocese is showing that they can’t be trusted to give the public a full extent of the abuse,” she said. “That is why we are demanding independent investigations in all 50 states. There needs to be another set of eyes on this that are not necessarily worried about the reputation of the church.”

Both Sakoda and Kate Bochte, an Illinois-based volunteer with SNAP, believe there are many more names that have not been made public.

Bochte said she’s tired of the church releasing “the bare minimum.”

“If they wanted to be fully transparent, they would be releasing more than just the names,” she said. “They would be releasing entire case files. ... Show us what you’ve done.”

Pauletto keeps two newspaper clippings about his alleged abuse in his wallet. They serve as a reminder, he said. One article details the claim against Bonach. The other is a letter to the editor from a woman defending the priests and blaming the boys for the abuse.

Pauletto said he still believes in God but won’t go near a Catholic Church except for funerals or weddings. He said he talked to a lawyer once about suing the church but was told the statute of limitations had passed.

“It’s not going to go away. That’s what I told the lawyer,” Pauletto said. “Statute of limitations? I think about this all the time.”