[See also the original list of bishops as it was printed and the article about the database.]

Roughly two-thirds of top U.S. Catholic leaders have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to keep working, a systematic practice that spans decades and continues today, a three-month Dallas Morning News review shows. The study - the first of its kind - looked at the records of the top leaders of the nation’s 178 mainstream Roman Catholic dioceses, including acting administrators in cases where the top job is vacant.

Excluded from the study were auxiliary bishops who, in larger dioceses, serve in subordinate roles but still can vote on many matters before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the 17 bishops who lead eparchies, which are diocese-like entities that worship according to the Eastern rite.

In checking whether a bishop had protected priests or other church representatives accused of sexual abuse, reporters Brooks Egerton and Reese Dunklin relied on published reports, court records, interviews and church records obtained in civil litigation. Most protected priests were accused of sexually abusing minors - primarily adolescent boys, but also younger ones, and a sizable number of girls of various ages. The newspaper’s study also covered behavior that indicated a sexual attraction to minors, such as viewing child pornography or, in one case, trading sexually charged e-mails with someone a priest believed was a minor.

Downloaded from http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/dallas/2002/priests.cgi on 2/18/04.

Diocese location Bishop's name Allegation Burlington, Vt. BISHOP KENNETH ANGELL The Diocese of Providence, R.I., where he was auxiliary bishop from 1974 to 1992, has paid more than $1 million to settle lawsuits that accused him and other leaders of covering up abuse by several priests. Bishop Angell testified in a 1990 lawsuit that he did not take seriously allegations - made by both parishioners and assistant priests - that the Rev. William O'Connell was molesting boys. The priest was convicted, served a short sentence, moved to New Jersey, committed more crimes and died in prison. In another Rhode Island case, Bishop Angell in 1989 promised to "take care of it" when the Rev. Normand Demers was accused of misconduct with boys while working at a Haitian orphanage, according to a former orphanage staffer. The priest was brought back to work in the Providence diocese (see more under that listing). More recently, Bishop Angell allowed six accused priests to stay on the job in Vermont, then later gave their names to the state attorney general and suspended them. He would not identify them publicly. Austin, Texas BISHOP GREGORY AYMOND As a New Orleans auxiliary bishop in 1998, he kept Catholic schoolteacher Brian Matherne on the job despite an allegation that he'd molested a student years earlier. Bishop Aymond has said he dropped the matter without alerting police because the alleged victim wouldn't speak to him. That young man later went to police himself, and authorities said more children had been molested in the meantime. Mr. Matherne has since been sentenced to prison after admitting that he abused 17 boys. Lawsuits against the New Orleans archdiocese are pending. Bishop Aymond has said he would do things differently today. Charleston, S.C. BISHOP ROBERT BAKER In February, a spokesman denied a lawsuit's allegation that the diocese was employing a "known priest-pedophile." Later, the spokesman acknowledged that an accused priest remained on the job, after having been suspended in the mid-1990s, moved to a smaller parish and ordered not to be alone with children. The Rev. Paul Seitz has since resigned, for what the diocese said were unrelated health reasons. The man who accused Father Seitz already has provided crucial testimony in the case against another priest, the Rev. Eugene Condon, who pleaded guilty to abuse in 1998 and was sentenced to probation. The accuser told the FBI that as a teenager in the 1960s he went to Father Condon for confession after Father Seitz abused him. Father Condon gave him alcohol and tried to molest him too, he said, and years later showed him a trunk full of photographs of naked boys whose pictures had been taken in a church rectory. In another instance, Bishop Baker two years ago moved to transfer the Rev. John Bench to a diocese in Florida, after paying a settlement to the family of a young girl the priest admitted abusing. The bishop dropped the idea after the family protested. Earlier this spring, Bishop Baker was criticized by Atlanta Archbishop John Donoghue for not immediately reporting abuse allegations to government authorities. The Charleston diocesan spokesman said it investigates internally first to "be sure we have a credible allegation." Green Bay, Wis. BISHOP ROBERT BANKS As a top aide to Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, he helped the Rev. Paul Shanley transfer to the Diocese of San Bernardino, Calif., in the early 1990s. The Boston archdiocese had been receiving allegations for many years that Father Shanley had molested children and publicly advocated sex between men and boys, but Bishop Banks wrote a counterpart in California that the priest "has no problem that would be a concern to your diocese." Bishop Banks has said he was unaware of Father Shanley's problems. "Maybe I dropped the ball, but it did not come to my attention," he recently told Wisconsin newspapers. "I know it seems strange to you that you could have 800 pages in a personnel file and that I, as the vicar for administration, would not know about it, but I did not know about it." In Green Bay, Bishop Banks recently suspended at least one priest, whom he described as devastated by a molestation accusation. "We're presuming that it's false," the bishop said. In late May, a task force he appointed said that seven priests accused of sexually abusing minors remained in active ministry; they were not named. Some were said to have been accused by people who withdrew their allegations, for reasons that were not explained. Six unnamed priests were said to be under criminal investigation, but it wasn't clear whether any of this group remained on the job. Bishop Banks responded by promising reform, saying that past policies were "at best inadequate and at worst scandalous." San Bernardino, Calif. BISHOP GERALD BARNES Bishop Barnes, who was the diocese's No. 2 official for much of the early 1990s and became its head in 1996, let four priests remain active until this spring despite abuse allegations kept in the diocese's records. His spokesman identified only two - the Rev. Peter Luque and the Rev. Peter Covas - but would not say specifically what they had been accused of, when the alleged abuse occurred and when the diocese had been alerted. Complaints about the priests were forwarded to police in April, along with information about 16 inactive clerics. Among the 16 was the Rev. Joe Fertal, whom the diocese has allowed since 1995 to live at a church complex used by high school students for overnight retreats. The diocese confidentially settled a lawsuit in 1996 that accused Father Fertal of sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy. The priest, who denied wrongdoing, was expected to relocate this spring. Oklahoma City, Okla. ARCHBISHOP EUSEBIUS BELTRAN In 1994, he got a written warning from the Diocese of Lansing, Mich., where one of his priests formerly worked and had just been sued. "We fear that more victims are going to emerge," the Michigan bishop wrote. "In light of these developments, I am obliged to alert you to potential dangers of Father [James] Rapp continuing in the ministry." Archbishop Beltran sent the priest for a therapeutic evaluation - something he'd received at least twice before, while in other parts of the country - but allowed him to remain pastor of a church in the southern Oklahoma town of Duncan. Father Rapp subsequently abused more boys and was sentenced to prison in 1999; the archdiocese and the priest's religious order, the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, have paid one victim a $5 million settlement. Archbishop Beltran has declined to comment, citing litigation that is still pending. In a deposition obtained by The Washington Post, he blamed the head of the order for not doing more to stop Father Rapp. Philadelphia, Pa. CARDINAL ANTHONY BEVILACQUA He has said he did not know that the Rev. John P. Connor, who was leader of a local parish from 1988 to 1993, had previously admitted in court to molesting a 14-year-old boy from a Catholic school in nearby Camden County, N.J., where the priest once taught. After leaving the Camden diocese and before going to Philadelphia, Father Connor also worked in the Pittsburgh diocese - at a time when Cardinal Bevilacqua was bishop there. Early this year, the cardinal dismissed six priests known to have abused minors over the years and said that the archdiocese had identified a total of 35 priests who had sexually abused children since 1950. Initially he refused to give names of those priests to authorities, saying he was concerned about protecting victims' confidentiality. He later relented under pressure from prosecutors. Archdiocese officials have said the dismissed priests had been working in administrative jobs and have been told to seek lay status from the Vatican. That would strip them of the right to perform sacramental duties. Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo. BISHOP RAYMOND BOLAND He is among several bishops who were accused in a racketeering lawsuit in April of protecting Bishop Anthony O'Connell, who recently resigned as head of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., after admitting he had abused a seminary student years ago in Missouri. Bishop Boland was specifically accused of doing nothing after one of Bishop O'Connell's victims alerted him to abuse in late 1993 or early 1994. Bishop Boland does not recall "any conversation with anyone claiming sexual abuse by Bishop O'Connell," his spokesman has said. This spring, Bishop Boland told parishioners that "we presently have no priest, teacher or youth minister in a parish or school who has ever been accused of any form of child sexual abuse." The following month, the diocese said that the Rev. Thomas O'Brien had been a hospital chaplain for more than 15 years, since being forced into therapy over allegations that he touched boys inappropriately and supplied them alcohol at parties. Monsignor O'Brien retired in April and has denied wrongdoing, the diocese said. Greensburg, Pa. BISHOP ANTHONY BOSCO He has suspended at least three priests this spring after reviewing information that was already in their personnel files. Bishop Bosco, who has headed the Greensburg diocese since 1987, has refused to identify the men but has turned over their files to local prosecutors. One priest had more than one abuse complaint on record, a diocesan spokesman said. San Diego, Calif. BISHOP ROBERT BROM He is one of about a dozen U.S. bishops who have been accused of sexual misconduct in recent years. Catholic leaders in Minnesota, where Bishop Brom once headed the Diocese of Duluth, have paid a settlement to a former seminarian who alleged that he was coerced into sex. A spokeswoman for the bishop recently told The Boston Globe that "minimal insurance" money was paid to the accuser, who agreed to retract his claim. Two archbishops who helped negotiate the deal in the mid-1990s said the man received roughly $100,000. The man alleged that in the 1980s, Bishop Brom and other high-ranking clergymen pressured him and other young men to have sex at a seminary in Winona, Minn. Bishop Brom has denied any sexual misconduct and has said that an investigation disproved what the former seminarian "thought he remembered." In San Diego after Bishop Brom took over, questions arose about how his top aides handled the 1993 case of the Rev. Emmanuel Omemaga, who was accused of raping a 14-year-old girl after her grandfather's funeral, tying her to a bed and photographing her in bondage. The diocese has said it suspended the priest when it first learned of the accusation, then let him go home to the Philippines on vacation. Police, meanwhile, began investigating and asked a priest who was one of the bishop's aides to alert them immediately upon Father Omemaga's return. "He agreed to do so" but instead waited five days, according to a police report. At that point, according to the report, the aide left a message saying that he had told the wanted man to call police and to consult an attorney. Father Omemaga vanished and remains the target of an arrest warrant. The aide has said he did everything he could do to bring his fellow priest to justice. Orange, Calif. BISHOP TOD BROWN In late March, after a lengthy review of personnel files, he proclaimed his diocese a "safe haven" - a place free of priests with molestation records. The review, required under a $5.2 million settlement reached last year with the victim of a former priest in the diocese, had led to removal of at least two clerics who'd been working for years after admitting abuse. Then in April, local media reported that the Rev. Denis Lyons had been accused of sexual misconduct for the third time and suspended. Bishop Brown's predecessor had sent Father Lyons into treatment after both previous allegations arose, in 1993 and 1994. The bishop hadn't fired the priest during the review, officials said, because one allegation involved misconduct with two adults and the other, involving two boys, could not be substantiated. The priests removed because of the review included the Rev. Michael Pecharich, who admitted six years ago that he molested a teenage boy in the early 1980s; and the Rev. John Lenihan, who admitted more than a decade ago that he had sexually abused a teenage girl. The diocese paid one settlement then and another this year to a woman who said Father Lenihan abused her when she was a teen in the 1970s and paid for her abortion. Seattle, Wash. ARCHBISHOP ALEXANDER BRUNETT The Rev. John Cornelius previously had been accused of touching young boys and at one point been demoted because of a complaint. Archbishop Brunett, who arrived in 1997, nevertheless kept employing the prominent priest, who'd made news for formally or informally adopting 13 children and keeping company with such celebrities as civil-rights activist Rosa Parks. But as more sex-abuse claims surfaced this spring, the archbishop suspended Father Cornelius from an assistant pastor's job. Then it was revealed that a 1996 psychiatric evaluation had raised concerns about his continued employment and that the archdiocese had been paying a state parole officer to monitor the priest since 1997. In May, as the number of victims approached at least a dozen, Father Cornelius resigned. Archbishop Brunett also has been accused of moving slowly against a second priest, the Rev. Gregory Schmitt, who is facing claims that he coerced a woman who sought his counseling into a sexual relationship that began in Kansas City, Mo., and continued in Seattle. The woman said she notified the Seattle archdiocese in 1999, but church officials said they thought the relationship was consensual so did nothing. After she filed suit in late April, Father Schmitt was suspended. Corpus Christi, Texas BISHOP EDMOND CARMODY As bishop in Tyler, Texas in the late 1990s, he let the Rev. John Flynn serve at a Longview church after the priest admitted sexual abuse of a girl in the 1970s and was removed from the largest parish in the San Antonio archdiocese. Monsignor Flynn, a longtime friend of the bishop's, was ordered into treatment and recently was quoted as saying, "I'm not restricted from being around young people." Bishop Carmody has said Monsignor Flynn is no threat and that "it's time to forgive and go on." The bishop's successor in Tyler recently removed the priest. In 1998, meanwhile, a lawsuit accused Bishop Carmody and the Tyler diocese of ignoring warnings about the Rev. Gustavo Cuello, who fled the country after his 1997 indictment on charges that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl at his church. Bishop Carmody denied the charges and recently said that he settled the suit for less than $100,000. Father Cuello remains at large. Rochester, N.Y. BISHOP MATTHEW CLARK The longtime bishop - who wrote in 1990 that pedophile clergy were afflicted but not sinful - allowed six accused priests to remain active until recently, including two who had been criminally investigated. Allegations already in diocesan files led Bishop Clark to announce the removal five of the priests in May; another priest resigned in April. Some victims had previously expressed concerns to the diocese that the Rev. Thomas Burr, the Rev. Foster Rogers and the Rev. David Simon were still in parish ministry. Their alleged incidents happened more than 20 years ago with teenagers, but the church would not disclose specifics. Two other priests, the Rev. William Lum and the Rev. Thomas Corbett, kept working in desk jobs at diocesan offices despite arrests in the 1990s. Father Lum had pleaded guilty in connection with assaulting a 16-year-old boy. Father Corbett was charged on two sex-abuse counts involving an adult woman, but the case was dismissed. The sixth priest, the Rev. Joseph Brodnick, resigned in April as a hospital chaplain amid decades-old allegations. He had previously been accused of abusing a teenage girl early in his priesthood in Cleveland, which loaned him to Rochester in 1997. Rochester officials were aware of Father Brodnick's past before he arrived; they said he posed no danger. Gaylord, Mich. BISHOP PATRICK COONEY Last summer, he let the Rev. Gerald Shirilla serve as pastor of a church with a school, although he knew that the priest had been forced out of the Detroit Archdiocese in 1993 by abuse allegations that dated back decades. After the Detroit Free Press reported on the situation this year, Bishop Cooney said that the priest had made "some errors in judgment" but was "no threat to the well-being of our children." Two weeks later, he suspended him. Among those who have accused Father Shirilla are former professional baseball player Tom Paciorek and three of his brothers. Father Shirilla has admitted massaging boys in their underwear but said there was nothing inappropriate about it, and he denied molesting anyone. Tyler, Texas BISHOP ALVARO CORRADA DEL RIO The Rev. John Flynn had stepped down from his post at a prominent San Antonio parish in 1997 after admitting that he had molested a teenage girl many years earlier. Within two years, however, he had re-emerged as head of the Longview parish. Bishop Corrada del Rio's predecessor, Corpus Christi Bishop Edmond Carmody, brought Monsignor Flynn to the Tyler diocese. (see more under the Corpus Christi listing.) But Bishop Corrada del Rio continued to let the priest work without restrictions until he forced him out in May. The bishop said he acted after two female congregants expressed discomfort with Monsignor Flynn. Hartford, Conn. ARCHBISHOP DANIEL CRONIN Since arriving from the Fall River, Mass., diocese in 1992, he has kept at least four accused priests in Hartford. The archdiocese knew about two complaints against the Rev. Louis Paturzo, but he remained on duty until May, when he admitted molesting young boys and resigned from his job at a middle school. Both incidents happened in the 1970s, when he was a church deacon; he joined the priesthood in 1981. Father Paturzo was first accused in 1993, but was allowed to continue working after state police could not prove the allegations and psychiatrists said he posed no threat to children. Archbishop Cronin also was aware of allegations against the Rev. Peter Zizka long before he was placed on leave in 1999. The priest was ordered to undergo treatment in 1993; two years later he was accused in lawsuits of fondling and having intercourse with two teenage girls who had sought his counseling in the 1970s. A third woman sued in 1997. Father Zizka denied the allegations. Archbishop Cronin refused in March to name two other priests kept on the job despite abuse complaints. Allentown, Pa. BISHOP EDWARD CULLEN Until February, he let four priests work despite decades-old allegations, which were detailed in their personnel files, that they had sexually abused children. He dismissed the men as the Boston clergy scandal brought pressure on dioceses nationwide to reassess their handling of molestation cases. Bishop Cullen initially refused to tell a prosecutor the priests' names or the parishes they served because, he said, the statute of limitations had expired. He relented in May, when four other prosecutors joined the call for disclosure. Oakland, Calif. BISHOP JOHN CUMMINS Until this spring, the longtime bishop kept the Rev. Robert Freitas on the job despite accusations made in 1985 that the priest molested two teen-age boys, one of whom was paid a settlement. Bishop Cummins halted Father Freitas' chaplain duties at a retirement home for nuns in April after police filed criminal charges against the priest. A third victim recently told police that the priest had repeatedly fondled his genitals and performed oral sex on him while he was a teenage church volunteer in 1979 and the early 1980s. The victim helped police secretly record a confession from Father Freitas, but the priest has pleaded not guilty to the molestation. When the first two victims took their allegations to the diocese in 1985, church officials investigated, then suspended Father Freitas and ordered him into treatment. The church did not forward either boy's claim to authorities. After counseling, Father Freitas was assigned to a desk job at an Oakland charity that helps AIDS patients. Years later, at his request, the diocese let him return to ministry as a chaplain. For several years, he also lived in the rectory of church with a school. Charlotte, N.C. BISHOP WILLIAM CURLIN In March, he said that he had "zero tolerance for child sex abuse," that the only Catholic clergy-abuse case he knew about in the area occurred more than 50 years ago and that the diocese had never sent money to another diocese to settle a molestation claim. A month later, however, a local newspaper showed that Bishop Curlin had reassigned the Rev. Damion Lynch in 1997 after paying a settlement to one victim's family. The bishop then acknowledged that Father Lynch had told him in 1995 of an "indiscretion" involving the boy and had undergone psychological testing. The priest was removed from ministry in 1998 after the victim's parents sued, alleging that another son had also been abused. In 2000, Bishop Curlin wrote a reference letter for the Rev. Richard Farwell - who was seeking a job with a Catholic charity in South Florida - even though the previous year Father Farwell had been accused of molesting a child two decades earlier. The bishop wrote the recommendation after the diocese determined the allegation was not credible, a spokeswoman said. The allegation was recently reiterated, and Bishop Curlin suspended Father Farwell, who was fired from the charity. Omaha, Neb. ARCHBISHOP ELDEN CURTISS He has come under criminal investigation in connection with a pending child-pornography possession case against one of his priests and recently admitted negligent supervision of another, the Rev. Daniel Herek, who's been convicted of manufacturing pornography and abusing an altar boy. Archbishop Curtiss has said he took immediate action against Father Herek when pornographic evidence first surfaced in 1997, but documents now emerging in civil court show several prior warnings of inappropriate behavior with children. The archbishop also suspended a third man this spring, the Rev. Thomas Sellentin, after the priest admitted molesting boys in parishes years ago. A spokesman said the archbishop learned of that abuse only recently, though another priest and a former state Supreme Court judge said it was documented decades ago. In mid-May, the chief prosecutor in Madison County, Neb., said Archbishop Curtiss could face witness-tampering charges because he sought the resignation of a Catholic schoolteacher who'd told police that the Rev. Robert Allgaier viewed child pornography at work. The district attorney has since said he would not charge the archbishop. Teacher Linda Hammond said the archbishop told her, in the presence of others, "You shouldn't have done this. We had it handled. You ruined a man's life." Archbishop Curtiss has said he wasn't trying to sway testimony. He has said that the priest was not accused of abusing children and was deemed by experts not to be attracted to them. Earlier, Madison County prosecutor Joe Smith criticized the archbishop for not coming to authorities when Father Allgaier admitted, in early 2001, that he had been viewing child pornography. Instead, the archbishop sent the priest to counseling and removed him from a high school teaching job - then let him teach at a middle school until his arrest in February In the late 1970s, as leader of the Diocese of Helena, Mont., Bishop Curtiss reassigned the Rev. Wilson Smart despite pedophilia allegations that had first emerged in 1959; the bishop later said he had failed to examine the priest's personnel file. In 1993, Bishop Curtiss admitted that he later removed letters documenting abuse from the file, acknowledged "shortsightedness and misjudgment" and added: "There has been a climate of silence on the part of priests and people, but there can be no more." Brooklyn, N.Y. BISHOP THOMAS DAILY In a 1991 letter to a bishop in Venezuela, he endorsed the Rev. Enrique Diaz Jimenez for reassignment there - at a time when the priest faced a 60-count molestation indictment in New York. The letter referred to the criminal charges as "a very difficult situation" but continued: "We have never had a single problem, and everything we have to say is positive." After the priest was convicted of abusing boys as young as 6, sentenced to four months in jail and quickly deported from the United States, he was allowed to return to work as a priest in Venezuela, his home country. Father Diaz was suspended there in the late 1990s, after 18 boys from a rural town reported abuse. He then moved to Colombia and was sentenced to house arrest this year for more crimes against children. Bishop Daily served as an auxiliary bishop in Boston and took part in protecting the Rev. John Geoghan after the priest admitted abuse; he has since said he regrets those decisions. A spokesman has defended the bishop's letter to his Venezuelan counterpart. Fort Worth, Texas BISHOP JOSEPH DELANEY He employed the Rev. Thomas Teczar in the late 1980s and early 1990s, after the priest had been forced into pedophilia treatment by his original diocese of Worcester, Mass., suspended from ministry there and fined for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Bishop Delaney has said he didn't know about Worcester diocesan files that documented molestation allegations dating to the 1960s. Father Teczar fled Texas in 1993 as criminal authorities investigated two of his friends for abusing children. Bishop Delaney initially said he thought the priest left because "he decided he didn't want to be a priest in Texas any more," then subsequently admitted that he had known Father Teczar was also a subject of the criminal investigation. The priest's friends have since been sentenced to prison. In the late 1980s, Bishop Delaney also hired an old friend, the Rev. Philip Magaldi, who had been suspended in his original diocese of Providence, R.I., for stealing from a church. Rhode Island authorities said he used some of the money for tropical vacations with adolescent boys and once gave a teenager he met in a park enough money to buy a car. Father Magaldi, who has denied wrongdoing, served as chaplain of the Fort Worth diocesan scouting program. Bishop Delaney no longer allows him to have a public ministry. Honolulu, Hawaii BISHOP FRANCIS DiLORENZO Kimberly Jenkins' two sons accused Manuel Feliciano of molestation in 1998, leading to criminal charges against the layman, who trained altar servers. Mr. Feliciano pleaded guilty in 2000 and was sentenced to a year in prison. In a lawsuit, the mother has accused the diocese of failing to act in 1997 after a boy from another family reported abuse by Mr. Feliciano. The diocese's lawyer said that Bishop DiLorenzo and other officials aren't at fault. In a counterclaim, the diocese demands that Ms. Jenkins reimburse its attorneys' fees, arguing that she was negligent in monitoring her children because, among other things, she let them spend the night at Mr. Feliciano's. Camden, N.J. BISHOP NICHOLAS DiMARZIO Until early this year, he let an admitted molester, the Rev. John P. Connor, work as a hospital chaplain and live in two parish rectories. When U.S. bishops began facing pressure to deal with clergy abuse, Bishop DiMarzio removed Father Connor. In 1984, the priest was charged with molesting a freshman from the preparatory school where he served as a teacher and coach. Father Connor had taken the boy on a camping trip, given him beer and fondled him. Diocese lawyers negotiated a deal in which he admitted guilt and agreed to avoid trouble for one year in exchange for a clean criminal record. After treatment in 1985, he moved to the Pittsburgh Diocese and then to the Philadelphia Archdiocese. (See more under that listing.) Some jobs gave him unrestricted access to children. Father Connor came back to the Camden Diocese in 1993. Sioux City, Iowa BISHOP DANIEL DINARDO At least one of his accused priests remained on duty as of early June. The Rev. Gerald Hartz was charged in the mid-1990s with improperly touching a 13-year-old girl at a Catholic school and also accused by at least one woman of groping and kissing her at church. The criminal case was dismissed after he resigned as a parish priest; the woman's complaint led to a civil suit that was dismissed. Father Hartz, formerly a superintendent of Catholic schools, has worked most recently as a nursing home chaplain. He has denied wrongdoing. Rockford, Ill. BISHOP THOMAS DORAN The family of three boys came forward in late 1996 with allegations that the Rev. Harlan Clapsaddle had molested them decades earlier. "We were encouraged by the diocese to keep quiet," Kevin Misslich recently told a Rockford television station. "They assured us that they would handle the Clapsaddle matter." In early 1997, the diocese removed Father Clapsaddle from his parish and ordered treatment. When he finished, he was put back to work, ministering in a nursing home. He stepped down in May. Bishop Doran has said he "acted responsibly" and stressed that Father Clapsaddle was working in a "restricted setting." Nursing home officials said they weren't told about the priest's past until two days before he quit. Orlando, Fla. BISHOP NORBERT DORSEY In interviews and court filings, he said that he didn't know about molestation allegations against the Rev. Arthur Bendixen until late 1993 and that he suspended him a few months later. His account has been contradicted by several people, including a former priest who said he told Bishop Dorsey in 1992 about parishioners' complaints that Father Bendixen was sleeping with a young boy while working in the Dominican Republic. Bishop Dorsey has said he met with the former priest, Charles Bard, but did not discuss such matters. He called Mr. Bard's account "false and vindictive." Father Bendixen, formerly a high-ranking administrator at diocesan headquarters, also was accused in 1992 of trying to seduce a teenage seminary student during a trip to the Dominican Republic. At the time, the priest was rector of the seminary. Three priests quit the school after Bishop Dorsey took no action. Father Bendixen has denied wrongdoing, while the diocese has paid several out-of-court settlements to men who said he abused them as boys. "Someone made the comment one time that they wouldn't be happy until they saw me personally lead this sinful criminal priest to be handcuffed," Bishop Dorsey has said. "And I said, well, the situation is, I would have to be handcuffed with him because we're connected. He's a priest, and I'm the head of the church here." Father Bendixen no longer functions as a priest; he has been teaching recently at a Catholic university in Chicago and running a center for homeless people. Boise, Idaho BISHOP MICHAEL DRISCOLL In 1985, while he was a high-ranking priest in southern California's Diocese of Orange, he urged a counterpart in England to hire the Rev. Robert Foley, who had undergone therapy for molesting an 8-year-old boy on a campout. The child's mother "has threatened to go to the police," he wrote. The priest "is in jeopardy of arrest and possible imprisonment if he remains here." Then-Monsignor Driscoll said in a deposition that Father Foley admitted the abuse. The priest left town, and the Orange Diocese did not respond to recent questions about his whereabouts. After being promoted to an auxiliary bishop post in the Orange Diocese, Bishop Driscoll received several allegations of abuse by the Rev. Eleuterio Ramos but did nothing, according to lawsuits that the diocese settled for undisclosed sums. Bishop Driscoll testified that he had no direct knowledge about Father Ramos; another priest contradicted his account. Father Ramos admitted some sexual contact with altar boys, but was allowed to transfer to a parish in the Diocese of Tijuana, Mexico, where he worked until the mid-1990s. He is no longer believed to be functioning as a priest. Bishop Driscoll, who was promoted to the top job in Boise in 1999, recently told parishioners there that "what hurts me most is the betrayal of the people's trust by some priests." Springfield, Mass. BISHOP THOMAS DUPRE The Rev. Bruce Teague says the bishop's administration reprimanded him in 1997 when he told police that a convicted child molester - the Rev. Richard Lavigne - was hanging around his church. Father Teague has said he got authorities to issue a trespass order only after alerting diocesan leaders and getting no response. At the time, Father Lavigne was on probation, under church suspension and trying to help hear children's confessions, Father Teague has said. Bishop Dupre has said that Father Teague was not punished for going to police. The bishop has also said that his diocese is ahead of some others in dealing with clergy sexual abuse, though he has at least two previously accused men on the job. One is the Rev. Edward M. Kennedy, who paid a secret settlement in the early 1990s to one accuser and was sent to a treatment center. Father Kennedy celebrates Mass at some parishes on a fill-in basis, serves as chaplain at a retirement center and helps decide annulment cases at diocesan headquarters. He recently told the Union-News of Springfield that he was grateful for the therapy he'd received. The diocese also sent him away to get a master's degree in church law. Another accused priest, the Rev. Richard Meehan, has been working as an archival researcher for the diocese. Bishop Dupre also has been accused of not waiving confidentiality agreements in civil settlements so that victims could speak freely with criminal authorities. He has disputed that charge New York, N.Y. CARDINAL EDWARD EGAN In his previous post as bishop in Bridgeport, Conn., he let some priests keep working after they were accused of sexual abuse. In closed testimony in a 1997 lawsuit, he expressed doubt about the veracity of most allegations, saying that "very few have even come close to having anyone prove anything." One priest he supported was the Rev. Raymond Pcolka, who had been accused as far back as 1966. Father Pcolka's alleged victims included more than a dozen boys and girls - some as young as 7 - who described being spanked and forced into oral and anal sex. Cardinal Egan kept him on the job until 1992, when another accuser came forward and the priest refused orders to remain at a treatment center. The diocese has since settled lawsuits against Father Pcolka, who refused to answer lawyers' questions during the litigation. Another priest protected by Cardinal Egan was the Rev. Laurence Brett, who had first admitted abuse in 1964 - biting a boy's genitals. After Cardinal Egan became Bridgeport's bishop in the late 1980s, he met Father Brett and endorsed him for continued ministry. "In the course of our conversation," he wrote, "the particulars of his case came out in detail and with grace." Further accusations led to Father Brett's suspension in 1993. In a recent letter to New York parishioners, Cardinal Egan said his policy in Bridgeport was to do a preliminary investigation of accused priests, then send them for psychiatric evaluation and heed doctors' advice. The Connecticut Postlater showed that the policy wasn't followed in the case of the Rev. Walter Coleman, who stayed on the job for more than a year after the Bridgeport diocese concluded in early 1994 that he had abused the son of a woman with whom he had an affair and bought a house. In early June, the pope appointed Cardinal Egan to the Vatican's highest court. In mid-May, the Westchester County district attorney convened a grand jury to investigate New York archdiocesan leaders' handling of sex-abuse allegations. Miami, Fla. ARCHBISHOP JOHN FAVALORA After a 1998 lawsuit accused the Rev. Jan Malicki of trying to rape a girl and sexually abusing a woman, the archbishop suspended him from parish work and reassigned him to duty at a nursing home. The priest refused the new job, his attorney has said, and remains off the job. Father Malicki and the archdiocese have asked a judge to order public identification of the plaintiffs, who are anonymous in court filings but whose names are known to the defense team. The archdiocese made a similar demand in a lawsuit filed in April against the Rev. Joseph Maroor, who is accused of seducing a woman he counseled at a drug-treatment center. The plaintiffs' attorneys have accused the Favalora administration of trying to embarrass their clients into dropping the cases and discourage other victims from coming forward. The defendants have said fairness dictates that all parties be identified publicly. Meanwhile, Archbishop Favalora has been negotiating for months with local prosecutors over how much information about accused priests he will give them. He recently suspended two previously accused priests, the Rev. Ricardo Castellanos and the Rev. Alvaro Guichard, after a new lawsuit alleged that they forced an altar boy to take part in orgies in the early 1970s. The two priests faced similar allegations in the late 1970s, before Archbishop Favalora came to Miami. That accuser later recanted. Father Castellanos and Father Guichard have denied wrongdoing. Victoria, Texas BISHOP DAVID FELLHAUER As a high-ranking Diocese of Dallas official in the 1980s, he helped move the Rev. Robert Peebles to different jobs after molestation complaints were made. One transfer made him a military chaplain in Georgia, where he sexually assaulted a boy. He was sent back to Dallas to avoid a court martial and became the diocesan scouting director. "We made the best decision at the time in view of the circumstances," Bishop Fellhauer told The Dallas Morning News in 1994. "There are also matters of confidentiality and people's reputations." Mr. Peebles was forced out of the priesthood in the late 1980s after he acknowledged abusing other boys, but he was not prosecuted. The diocese has paid millions to his victims and also paid for him to get a law degree in New Orleans. Bishop Fellhauer has acknowledged making a mistake regarding Mr. Peebles. He has also testified that as early as 1985 he had reports that boys were spending the night with the Rev. Rudy Kos, who is now imprisoned for life for sexually assaulting boys in the Dallas diocese. But during the trial of several Kos victims' civil suit - which ended in the largest clergy-abuse verdict in history - the bishop told jurors that he didn't suspect abuse. "It was obvious he had a ministry to young people," the bishop testified. "He was good with them." Galveston-Houston, Texas BISHOP JOSEPH FIORENZA In the late 1970s and early 1980s, as bishop of San Angelo in West Texas, he employed a priest who'd been forced from three other dioceses because of molestation accusations. Bishop Fiorenza wrote in a 1982 letter that he knew of the Rev. David Holley's "past difficulties" and stated: "With our shortage of priests, I am willing to risk incardinating him" - formally making him a priest of the Diocese of San Angelo. In 1997, when The Dallas Morning News obtained that letter and the rest of Father Holley's personnel file, Bishop Fiorenza refused interview requests. He recently told The Houston Chronicle, through a spokesman, that he hadn't known about the priest's pedophilia when he employed him and that the "past difficulties" reference was to "poor people skills." Later, the bishop added that the reference also covered "problems with alcohol" - something that is not in the personnel file. Father Holley is now imprisoned for molesting boys in New Mexico, where he served before coming to Texas. After going to the Galveston-Houston diocese in the mid-1980s, Bishop Fiorenza transferred the Rev. Noe Guzman to another parish after the priest was caught sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. The bishop has said he delegated the matter to an assistant, who has testified that he accepted Father Guzman's characterization of the girl as a "precocious child who came on to him." The woman who caught the priest has said that the assistant urged her not to cooperate with police. The assault came to light after Father Guzman impregnated a church secretary; he served a short jail term. Superior, Wis. BISHOP RAPHAEL FLISS As second in command of the diocese in the mid-1980s, he persuaded authorities to let the church handle a parent's allegations that the Rev. David Malsch had touched his 14-year-old son and offered the boy $10 for oral sex. "I didn't want to have a lot of scandal," the bishop testified years later. Over the next seven years, Father Malsch was sent on a series of treatment stops and was transferred to parishes where he had contact with children. After a mother came forward in 1991, police began investigating allegations that Father Malsch had molested a 14-year-old boy with learning disabilities and had given him X-rated videos. Bishop Fliss, by then head of the diocese, suspended the priest and ordered more treatment. Two years later, Father Malsh pleaded no contest to one count of child enticement, but denied other accusations against him, including that he had offered two brothers liquor and had repeatedly molested them over a five-year span. After violating terms of his probation, Father Malsch was sent to prison for nearly two years. He now stays in a Missouri facility, where he was civilly committed. Bishop Fliss acknowledged in April that he had mishandled the case. San Antonio, Texas ARCHBISHOP PATRICK FLORES As an auxiliary bishop in San Antonio in the 1970s, he helped Xavier Ortiz-Dietz become a priest despite poor performance in three Mexican seminaries. One of the schools sent a report concluding that the student suffered from "marked sexual conflict, ... obsessive manias, pronounced paranoid characteristics, delusions of grandeur..." In 1998, the archdiocese paid about $4 million to seven victims of the priest, who has been imprisoned. Two women gave sworn statements saying that they alerted the archdiocese of possible abuse in the 1980s; Archbishop Flores' attorney has said he was not warned. In the late 1990s, the archbishop testified in a deposition that the priest remained "fit for certain ministries" despite his criminal conviction. In the late 1980s, meanwhile, Archbishop Flores settled a lawsuit over alleged molestation by the Rev. Federico Fernandez. He has said he didn't remember an earlier complaint from a man who warned that he had seen the priest naked in a swimming pool with two young girls. Father Fernandez was also criminally charged in the late 1980s, but the case was dismissed at the request of an alleged victim. St. Paul-Minneapolis, Minn. ARCHBISHOP HARRY FLYNN As bishop of the Lafayette, La., Diocese, he was credited with cleaning up one of the nation's earliest clergy abuse scandals in the 1980s. That record, in part, led to his April appointment as chairman of a key bishops' committee that drafted the proposed national policy on handling clergy sex abuse. But since 1995, Archbishop Flynn has allowed at least five accused priests - three who remain active - to continue working in the Twin Cities despite past lawsuits or criminal charges against them. Although the Rev. Gil Gustafson pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a young boy in the 1970s and spent six months in a workhouse, he has been celebrating Mass four times a week at a monastery and serving as an administrative aide. The Rev. Michael Stevens pleaded guilty in the late 1980s to sexual misconduct with a minor, and he has been working in the archdiocese's computer department. Archbishop Flynn defended his decisions to keep them employed, as well the Rev. Joseph Wada, who was accused in lawsuits of abusing teenage boys. "None of the three are in positions, now, in which children may be harmed," he said. Early in his tenure, the archbishop kept the Rev. Robert Kapoun on duty despite claims that he had molested four boys. After a jury in 1996 awarded more than $1 million to one victim, the archdiocese announced that Father Kapoun, dubbed the Polka Priest for his use of the music in Masses, had agreed to step down. An appeals court later overturned the decision, saying the victim had waited too long to come forward. Birmingham, Ala. BISHOP DAVID FOLEY After taking over in 1994, he kept the Rev. Charles V. Cross in his diocese job and let him celebrate Mass - although previous bishops had received complaints of abuse by him and ordered him into treatment. Bishop Foley suspended Father Cross in early May, a month after a story in the Decatur (Ala.) Daily recounted allegations against the priest. Bishop Foley said he acted after more victims came forward with "substantial and credible" complaints. Father Cross has denied the allegations but agreed to retire in June. In a 1995 lawsuit, Robert Wilford accused Father Cross of repeatedly molesting, sodomizing and beating him when he was a teenager in the 1960s - and alleged that the priest had confessed to church officials. A judge later dismissed the case because the claims were too old. Father Cross said the suit was financially motivated. Mr. Wilford had taken his complaints to the diocese in 1993 - eight years after Father Cross was ordered to undergo treatment because of other misconduct claims - but then-Bishop Raymond Boland kept Father Cross in his administrative job at diocese headquarters (see the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo. Diocese). At the time of the priest's suspension, Father Cross was living at a Birmingham church facility. Jefferson City, Mo. BISHOP JOHN GAYDOS He was one of the bishops who remained silent in 1999 as Anthony O'Connell was promoted from bishop of the Knoxville, Tenn., Diocese to the much larger one in Palm Beach, Fla. The Diocese of Jefferson City had paid a $125,000 out-of-court settlement in 1996 to a seminarian who Bishop O'Connell abused during the 1970s. Bishop Gaydos also let the Rev. Manus Daly stay on duty until this spring, even though the diocese was told in 1996 that he had also abused Bishop O'Connell's victim. Bishop O'Connell - who took over in Florida for another admitted molester, Bishop J. Keith Symons - has resigned. The Jefferson City Diocese's failure to speak up about Bishop O'Connell was "a travesty," said Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Gaydos recently closed the Missouri seminary where Bishop O'Connell and Father Daly abused the student. He also suspended another priest, the Rev. Don Wallace, whom he'd kept on the job since four altar boys complained in 1997 about inappropriate touching. Bishop Gaydos serves on the abuse committee of the bishops conference. Chicago, Ill. CARDINAL FRANCIS GEORGE He is facing allegations that the archdiocese had protected several priests with histories of abuse. The cardinal removed a former top aide, the Rev. R. Peter Bowman, from a parish. in late May. That was a month after a man accused the priest of molesting him many years ago - and at least a year after the archdiocese dismissed another complaint against Father Bowman because, in a church spokesman's words, it involved merely "horseplay that could have been misinterpreted." This spring, Cardinal George suspended a priest who had been a top aide to his predecessor, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. The Rev. Robert Kealy had remained a pastor after being accused last year of abusing a teenager in the 1970s, then was removed in March after more information surfaced. He used to help Cardinal Bernardin handle abuse allegations against colleagues. Neither he nor Father Bowman has responded publicly. A third priest accused in April of abuse in the 1960s remained on the job for more than a month; the church spokesman said internal investigations have lagged because so many complaints are emerging. There are also allegations of recent abuse and archdiocesan misconduct. One lawsuit, for example, has charged that the archdiocese knew three years ago that the Rev. Walter Strus was sexually harassing parishioners but let him keep working. Father Strus has since fathered a child with a Polish immigrant, who has accused him of raping her and pressuring her to have an abortion. He has denied the allegations. "We had no indication of [the priest's] propensity for sexual assault," the church spokesman said. Another recent scandal involves the Rev. Sleeva Raju Policetti, who fled to his native India in May after being accused of abusing a girl. Church officials waited two days after learning of the allegation to call criminal authorities, who "advised us not to confront him ... until they had the chance to gather more information and question him," the spokesman said. "Somehow he found out ... anyway, and he left the country." Portland, Maine BISHOP JOSEPH GERRY A 1990 letter from one alleged victim of the Rev. Raymond Melville begged Bishop Gerry to "please stop this from happening again." The bishop pledged "to address the matter vigorously and expeditiously." He put Father Melville in therapy for a few months, then moved him to another parish. While there, according to a pending lawsuit, the priest continued to molest a teenager whom he'd started abusing years before. Father Melville, who hasn't commented publicly, was sent to one more church before leaving the ministry in 1997. A diocesan spokeswoman recently said his departure had nothing to do with abuse allegations. But last year, a former spokesman said the priest had quit after refusing further treatment. The spokeswoman also said the diocese's new "zero tolerance" policy would prevent someone similarly accused from returning to a parish. Until it was implemented this year, at least two admitted abusers remained on the job: the Rev. Michael Doucette, for whom the diocese paid a confidential settlement a decade ago; and the Rev. John Audibert, a victim of whose spoke out publicly as long ago as 1993. Evansville, Ind. BISHOP GERALD GETTELFINGER He told parishioners in late March that priests who sexually abuse children are guilty of "grave sins" that he would not tolerate. At the time, his spokesman would not say whether any complaints had been referred to criminal authorities or whether any priests had been removed. Shortly afterward, news accounts detailed the backgrounds of three men who were working as pastors in the diocese: the Rev. Jean Vogler, who spent 10 months in federal prison in the 1990s on a child pornography conviction; the Rev. Michael Allen, who admitted that in 1974 he initiated a series of sexual encounters with a 16-year-old boy who was hospitalized for depression; and the Rev. Mark Kurzendoerfer, who was transferred to a different teaching job in 1981 after being accused of abusing a 14-year-old student. Soon after coming to Evansville in 1989, Bishop Gettelfinger ordered Father Kurzendoerfer not to have a youth ministry - although he let him work at a parish with a school. In May, the bishop suspended the priest and sent him to counseling, saying that he had been violating the order, in part by having private counseling sessions with 11-year-old students. Parents and the school principal had not been told about the restriction. Bishop Gettelfinger acknowledged that he had also sent Father Kurzendoerfer into "extensive therapy" after he admitted soliciting a 17-year-old in 1998. The young man then identified himself to the Evansville Courier & Press as the priest's nephew. Meanwhile, Father Vogler and Father Allen have remained on the job. Bishop Gettelfinger has been publicly supportive of Father Allen, saying he didn't think anyone was at risk. "The people have come to love him because of his pastoral gifts, his ministering to his people, his presence to his people, the attention given to them," the bishop said. "He really has been the priestly leader that they were looking for, yearning for, and now have." Raleigh, N.C. BISHOP F. JOSEPH GOSSMAN He suspended the Rev. Thomas Watkins from a parish this spring after a man alleged that he had been repeatedly sexually harassed by the priest while a college seminary student in Ohio many years ago. Father Watkins had been accused of inappropriate contact with three other people during Bishop Gossman's 27-year tenure, but the diocese would not elaborate. Father Watkins has denied the allegations. Several years ago, Bishop Gossman employed the Rev. Joseph LaForge after the priest was charged in New Jersey with helping a cleric accused of child molestation to flee the country. Father LaForge admitted giving $5,000 in church funds to the Rev. Florencio Tumang, but said he had no idea the priest would flee. Charges against Father LaForge were dismissed after he completed a pretrial intervention program for first-time offenders. He has since died; Father Tumang remains a fugitive. Dallas, Texas BISHOP CHARLES GRAHMANN His diocese was found liable for conspiracy in 1997 after covering up years of abuse by the Rev. Rudy Kos; jurors assessed the largest clergy-abuse verdict in history. Bishop Grahmann had let Mr. Kos keep working in the early 1990s after the priest ignored repeated orders to stop letting boys sleep over at church residences. The bishop testified that "there was no reason" to remove Mr. Kos in spring 1992 after a social worker who specializes in child abuse said Mr. Kos sounded like a "textbook pedophile." Bishop Grahmann also refused experts' requests to test whether Mr. Kos was aroused by pictures of children, saying he had "moral problems" with the procedure. After jurors returned their verdict, the bishop did not stay in the courtroom to hear a statement they had written that said, in part, "Please admit your guilt." A top aide who did hear the statement said he didn't know how to respond to it, explaining that "I don't know what 'admit your guilt' is." Mr. Kos has since been defrocked, convicted of criminal charges and sent to prison. In a recent interview, Bishop Grahmann gave this assessment of the pedophile priest scandal: "Bishops are accused of covering up and moving people from one parish to another. That's a bunch of bull." Columbus, Ohio BISHOP JAMES GRIFFIN He recently said that some priests who've been treated for sexual misconduct - he wouldn't identify them - remain on the job but not in parishes. Yet Bishop Griffin also acknowledged that he had put the Rev. Joseph Fete in a pastor's job last year, after earlier removing him from another church, sending him to treatment and paying a settlement to a victim who was molested for years in the late 1970s. Monsignor Fete, who admitted the abuse, recently was put in charge of the diocese's newly created office of ecumenical affairs. Bishop Griffin also acknowledged that the Rev. Phillip Jacobs had been allowed to transfer to a church in Victoria, British Columbia, after being accused of molestation in 1994. The bishop said he sent Father Jacobs into therapy for "improper sexual touching" of a boy. Dubuque, Iowa ARCHBISHOP JEROME HANUS In 2000, he kept the Rev. Michael Fitzgerald on duty for weeks at a rural parish after the diocese was shown evidence that the priest had traded sexually suggestive e-mails with and arranged to meet a 13-year-old boy - who turned out to actually be an investigator working for a private child-protection group. After criminal authorities were notified, Archbishop Hanus suspended Father Fitzgerald and sent him to an out-of-state treatment center, which police said stymied their investigation. The archbishop later said he expected to return the priest to his parish. He dropped that idea after an allegation was made that Father Fitzgerald had molested an adolescent from the church. The priest died in a car crash last year while training near Chicago to be a hospital chaplain. Norwich, Conn. BISHOP DANIEL HART A lawsuit accuses him of ignoring several warning signs that could have stopped the Rev. Richard Buongirno from continuing to assault a young boy. The abuse allegedly began in the early 1990s, when the child was 9. State officials were notified through an anonymous complaint, but they stopped investigating because the boy denied being abused. State and diocese officials never questioned the priest, according to the plaintiff's lawyer. In 1994, a second allegation of abuse, made by a man, surfaced against Father Buongirno. The cleric admitted to it, leading the bishop at the time to suspend him and order him into treatment. After Bishop Hart arrived in 1995, he reviewed Father Buongirno's file and returned him to ministry, sometimes around children. Within a few years, Father Buongirno had allegedly begun again abusing the boy, who was by then a teen-ager. The abuse was discovered after parish workers learned the boy was on an out-of-state trip with Father Buongirno; the priest had told colleagues he was traveling with an adult. The boy shared details with a counselor and police, who arrested Father Buongirno in 1999. Father Buongirno pleaded not guilty, and the charges were later dropped because of statutes of limitation. He has since left the priesthood. Bishop Hart's lawyer said the bishop had reinstated the priest after a treatment clinic had given its approval. But records obtained by The Hartford Courant show that the diocese did not tell the center all the allegations against Father Buongirno. Lafayette, Ind. BISHOP WILLIAM L. HIGI Indianapolis newspapers concluded in a 1997 series that Bishop Higi had concealed knowledge of several abusers and returned some to ministry. One example: the Rev. Ron Voss, who got therapy after being accused of fondling teenagers in the late 1980s and was transferred to Haiti, where he sometimes worked with young people. When fellow priests complained, one of the bishop's aides ordered them to "cease from jeopardizing the name and reputation of Ron Voss." Father Voss resigned from ministry in 1993 but continued to identify himself as a priest in the Caribbean island nation. Church officials have said Father Voss regrets his past behavior and has changed. Bishop Higi initially called the newspaper's reporting "a product of clever spins and a preconceived agenda." Later, though, he hired a sexual-abuse counseling expert to investigate allegations and acknowledged that the news reports "found me and my predecessors deficient." Toledo, Ohio BISHOP JAMES HOFFMAN The Rev. Robert J. Fisher spent 30 days in jail after pleading guilty in 1988 to molesting a 14-year-old girl from his own parish. After four years of church-ordered therapy Father Fisher was found fit to return and Bishop Hoffman appointed him pastor at a another parish. In March, as the clergy abuse crisis spread nationally, the diocese acknowledged that he remained on the job, but it didn't name him or his parish publicly. At the same time, officials said two other unnamed priests, who were described as having been involved in "improprieties" with adults or older teens, also were still active. Bishop Hoffman suspended Father Fisher in May, to the displeasure of some parishioners. He cited "the media climate" in the country as a factor in his decision, but said he had no plans to remove others. Later that month, he said, "My difficulty with zero tolerance is that the gospel teaches reconciliation. We believe in forgiveness." Albany, N.Y. BISHOP HOWARD HUBBARD From the mid-1980s until April, he allowed an admitted molester, the Rev. David Bentley, to work in Africa and elsewhere outside the diocese. Because no new complaints surfaced, the Albany Diocese said, Bishop Hubbard let Father Bentley serve for the last few years at a parish in Deming, N.M., which is part of the Las Cruces Diocese. (See more under that listing.) The priest has received therapy but has never faced criminal charges. Bishop Hubbard also let at least three other priests work as hospital chaplains after they got treatment for sexual misconduct; they include the Rev. Mark Haight and the Rev. James Hanley, who was from the Diocese of Paterson, N.J. (See more under that listing.) The Albany Diocese says it has ended a practice of reassigning molesters to hospitals. As of early June, the bishop had not answered questions about whether other accused priests remained on duty. New Orleans, La. ARCHBISHOP ALFRED HUGHES As an aide to Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, he received a complaint in 1991 that the Rev. John Geoghan was having "inappropriate" conversations with young boys at a Massachusetts swimming pool. He responded by telling Father Geoghan to stay away from the pool. The priest had previously been treated for pedophilia but was allowed to stay on the job. He was recently convicted of fondling a boy - at the same pool in 1991. In New Orleans, where Archbishop Hughes has served for a little more than a year, he recently suspended at least two priests because of abuse allegations that were already in personnel files; the men were not publicly identified. The archbishop also apologized for Catholic leaders' handling of predatory clerics. "Our action or inaction failed to protect the innocents among us, the children," he wrote. "I ask forgiveness." Joliet, Ill. BISHOP JOSEPH IMESCH Bishop Imesch has transferred at least four accused priests inside his diocese without alerting parishioners. And he has brought in a convicted child molester, the Rev. Gary Berthiaume, who had served as an associate pastor under him at a Detroit church years ago (see more under the Cleveland Diocese listing). The Chicago Tribune recently reported that in 1980, early in Bishop Imesch's career in Joliet, the diocese moved the Rev. Lawrence Gibbs while he was under criminal investigation and refused to tell investigators where he was. The bishop told parents whose children had been interviewed in the case that authorities had found no evidence to charge Father Gibbs, who got a new parish and allegedly molested again. He has since left the priesthood. Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of St. Louis recently removed two priests it had accepted from Joliet, the Rev. Fred Lenczycki and the Rev. J. Anthony Meis, saying that Bishop Imesch had not disclosed past allegations against them when recommending them for transfers. The bishop has denied that assertion. In recent months, he has said that some people aren't traumatized by sexual abuse and that some priests who molest adolescents should be allowed back into ministry after therapy. But in late May, he changed course and said he would support a "zero tolerance" policy if the nation's bishops approve it in Dallas this week. "I am sorry for any pain I have caused victims, their families, parishioners and others," he wrote. "I feel that some of the criticisms directed at me were harsh, but I hope that I have learned from them." Alexandria, La. BISHOP SAM JACOBS He sent the Rev. John Andries to therapy and then back to a parish after a 1998 incident of alleged fondling, which wasn't prosecuted. In May, Father Andries was charged with sexual battery, accused of touching and masturbating onto a sleeping boy in 2001. The boy's parents said they had invited the priest to spend the night at their rural home without knowing about the 1998 matter. The parents also said that when they reported the incident to Bishop Jacobs, he told them that Father Andries wasn't supposed to be around children. "If he wasn't supposed to be around kids, what are you doing putting him back in the church parish?" the family's attorney, Anthony Fontana, has asked. The priest has pleaded not guilty. Houma-Thibodaux, La. BISHOP MICHAEL JARRELL The bishop let the Rev. Robert Melancon continue working in a parish after paying one of his victims $30,000 in 1993. Another victim came forward in 1995, saying that he had been raped repeatedly in a church rectory in the 1980s - the first time when he was 8 years old. Father Melancon has since been convicted in that case and sentenced to life in prison. Before the trial, the district attorney said he would seek to have Bishop Jarrell held in contempt of court for refusing to say whether church authorities were investigating other complaints of sexual abuse against priests. The bishop then answered that they had not. One of his former top aides, the Rev. Albert Bergeron, pleaded guilty to lying to a grand jury investigating Father Melancon. Two of Father Melancon's accusers have testified that they sometimes met him at Monsignor Bergeron's rectory, where there was a supply of pornography. Baltimore, Md. CARDINAL WILLIAM KEELER He put the Rev. Maurice Blackwell back to work in 1993 after police dropped a molestation investigation. A panel Cardinal Keeler had appointed to review such matters criticized the reinstatement, saying that the accusations against the priest were "consistent and credible." Father Blackwell was suspended again in 1998 after admitting sexual abuse of a minor that predated the 1993 case. The 1993 accuser, Dontee Stokes, was charged this spring with shooting and seriously wounding the priest. Afterward Cardinal Keeler acknowledged that the 1993 accusation had been credible, saying he regretted his earlier decision and apologized for the first time to victims of clergymen, The detective who investigated at the time was constrained by prosecutors, according to records obtained by The Washington Post. An unidentified prosecutor's notes say: "Priest known to prey on young boys. [The detective is] trying to pressure me into letting him speak with the priest. ... I reiterated no arrest and no talking to priest." Cardinal Keeler also has long let the Rev. Michael Spillane work for a group that advises the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on worship practices. The cardinal's spokesman said that Father Spillane was barred in 1991 from celebrating Mass, after he admitted molesting six boys and that the advisory group was notified. The organization's chairman said he hadn't been advised. The priest is set to retire this year, the chairman said. Louisville, Ky. ARCHBISHOP THOMAS KELLY He settled claims in 1990 and 1999 that alleged abuse by the Rev. Louis Miller many years earlier, but kept him on the job until this spring. Archbishop Kelly's spokesman said that Father Miller, who has denied wrongdoing, was not allowed to work with children. "I have been in church administration positions for 40 years, and 30 years ago I didn't know anything about this problem," the archbishop recently said. "We knew there were some moral lapses, but we treated them as, you go on a retreat, you come back and maybe go on a different assignment." As of early June, the archdiocese faced more than 100 lawsuits, several of which name Father Miller. Among the specific allegations against him: that he masturbated in a confessional while an 8-year-old boy described being sexually abused by a stranger. That accuser, now an adult, said the priest also asked him whether he had been aroused during the assault. Nashville, Tenn. BISHOP EDWARD KMIEC He has been accused in a lawsuit of failing to act after learning in the mid- to late 1990s that a suspended pedophile priest was continuing to socialize with boys at a church and a Catholic school. Therapists had warned the diocese in writing that the Rev. Edward McKeown should be kept away from adolescents. Father McKeown gained temporary custody of a troubled teen in the late 1990s, then later was charged with raping him and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Bishop Kmiec has acknowledged giving parishioners a "misleading" statement about how many times his predecessor was warned about the priest before suspending him. The bishop's spokesman has also insisted that, over the years, the diocese has done its best to deal with Father McKeown. Boston, Mass. CARDINAL BERNARD LAW His record of protecting pedophile priests - in Boston and his previous diocese in Missouri - has made headl