Springfield Diocese Temporarily Removes 3 Priests from Public Ministry after Sexual Abuse Allegation

By Anne-Gerard Flynn
Mass Live
June 3, 2020

https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/06/springfield-diocese-temporarily-removes-3-priests-from-public-ministry-after-sexual-abuse-allegation.html

Jeffrey J. Trant is director of the Office of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. (Photo by Anne-Gerard Flynn, Special to The Republican)

Three priests from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield have been temporarily removed from public ministry as a result of an allegation of sexual abuse, according to Jeffrey J. Trant, director of the diocesan Office of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance.

The priests were not identified.

Trant, who was appointed to his position last June, said that 14 new alleged victims have come forward with claims of clerical sexual abuse since July 2019.

“Ten alleged sexual abuse against a minor/child and four alleged sexual abuse against a vulnerable adult,” he said.

The diocese defines vulnerable adults as “those who are uniquely vulnerable to abuse because of physical or mental disabilities.”

Four reports, Trant said, “were for allegations against independent religious orders and two reports were for allegations of sexual abuse by a cleric from another diocese.”

“Four allegations were made against living priests from the diocese, of which one allegation did not name the identity of the alleged abusers, but it was reported that there were two priests, one of which was from the Diocese of Springfield who had previously been removed from ministry due to a credible allegation of sexual abuse, and the other from another diocese,” Trant said.

He added, “Two allegations were made against living priests from independent religious orders, and one allegation was against a living priest from another diocese.”

He said new allegations were made against both “someone new who is living,” as well as someone deceased.

The diocese recently clarified and entered into an agreement with law enforcement in which allegations it receives are referred first for investigation to the appropriate district attorney’s office, but Trant said the diocese continues as part of its intake process to offer at the time the report is made the alleged victim counseling “while the matter is being reviewed by law enforcement and, later, the Diocesan Review Board.”

He said there have been four new people “in the diocese’s counseling program within the last 12 months” and that “27 victim-survivors participated” in the program during that time.

Asked if the new team of investigators hired in February to look into allegations of clerical sexual abuse for the diocese had been assigned cases, Trant said, “As of June 1, 2020, there are six allegations of clergy sexual abuse that have been reported to law enforcement and have been cleared for diocesan investigators.”

“There is one case of alleged clergy sexual abuse that will be heard by the Review Board at the June meeting,” said Trant, adding there were ongoing negotiations involving monetary settlements with victims.

Besides appointing Trant, who holds a master’s degree in social work from Boston College, and entering into a “Memo of Understanding” with the district attorneys for the four western counties, Bishop Mitchell Rozanski last June appointed retired Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct made against the late Bishop Christopher J. Weldon dating back to the early 1960s.

Last June, after meeting with a man who said he was sexually abused by Weldon decades ago, Rozanski filed an initial report of that accusation with the Hampden Country District Attorney’s Office.

Trant has said the Velis’s investigation will also “help identify opportunities for improvement in how the diocese handles” allegations of clerical sexual abuse.

When the diocese receives a report against a living person in ministry than the person is removed at the point temporarily from ministry and the allegation reported to the appropriate district attorney, Trant said.

Allegations made to the Springfield Diocese about a member of the clergy from an independent religious order are reported by his office directly to the appropriate district attorney, and the diocese also notifies the independent religious order, Trant said.

Allegations that are made to the diocese about a member of the clergy from another diocese are reported to that diocese, Trant said, with his office working with the other diocese to verify the allegation has been reported to law enforcement.

Last week, Rozanski announced the members of an independent task force he has created to advise the diocese on child protection and clerical sexual abuse and the adoption of any recommendations from the Velis report that the diocese said is expected to be finalized and release soon.

In February 2019, the diocese released a report that showed that to that date the Springfield diocese has paid out nearly $15 million in settling 147 clergy sexual abuse claims since 1992.

A Pennsylvania report released in August 2018 revealed that 300 priests in six dioceses there had sexually abused 1,000 children over seven decades and that the cases were covered up by church hierarchy.

The Springfield Diocese has had several high profile cases.

The first U.S. bishop said to be indicted on the specific charge of child sex abuse was Springfield Bishop Thomas Dupre.

Indicted on charges that he raped two boys in the 1970s, Dupre, who resigned suddenly in 2004 shortly before his indictment, was never prosecuted because of the statute of limitations and died bishop emeritus in 2016 at the age of 83.

The Springfield diocese did settle with two men who named Dupre as their abuser.

In 2003, the Vatican removed from ministry Richard Lavigne, a diocesan priest who pleaded guilty in 1992 to two counts of molestation of a minor and was given a 10-year probation sentence. Lavigne was also the only publicly identified suspect in the 1972 murder of Springfield altar boy Daniel Croteau. That slaying remains unsolved.

In 2018, 15 reported cases of clergy sexual abuse were made to the diocese, the highest number since since 52 claims were made in 2004.

The diocese publishes on its website a list of diocesan priests and deacons who have had one or more allegations of sexual abuse of a child made against them while they were living and determined to be credible by the diocesan review board.