INDIANA
Journal Gazette
His title alone gave authority and distinction to Bishop John D’Arcy, but it was his actions and character that earned widespread respect and admiration from Catholics and non-Catholics alike in northern Indiana.
D’Arcy was the spiritual leader of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Roman Catholic Diocese both by position and in practice, always maintaining the dignity and reverence demanded of a Catholic bishop while remaining approachable and personable.
While D’Arcy will be remembered locally for his guidance and leadership of more than 150,000 Catholics in northern Indiana, he was also a beacon of light during the dark pedophile priest scandal that enveloped the Catholic Church. Far too often, the church leadership’s response was to keep the transgressions quiet, moving guilty priests to new parishes where they found more victims. D’Arcy, working for Cardinal Bernard Law in the Boston diocese, began sounding the warning in 1978. In 2004, the National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People cited D’Arcy as “a voice in the wilderness.”
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