UNITED STATES
The Star-Ledger
By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist
on May 26, 2013
By David Clohessy
There are plenty of reasons to be upset about Newark Archbishop John J. Myers’ actions and inaction that kept an admitted pedophile priest around kids for years despite a legal agreement forbidding such contact.
I’m troubled about it, though, for a different reason than most. The Rev. Michael Fugee controversy is considered by many — and is depicted by Catholic officials — to be a disturbing anomaly. But it’s not.
Tragically, a number of U.S. bishops are, like Myers, letting proven, admitted or credibly accused child-molesting clerics stay on the job near children. Consider these recent examples:
• Earlier this month, a Wisconsin Benedictine monk, Thomas Chmura, was out of jail on bail, but was found back at an abbey working with children, so he was arrested again.
• In the Joliet, Ill., Diocese, Bishop Daniel Conlon lets the Rev. Carroll Howlin essentially live and work, as he has for 30 years, among poor families in eastern Kentucky, despite four clergy sex-abuse settlements involving Howlin as well as a Vatican order that he be kept away from children.
• In the Fresno, Calif., Diocese, Bishop John Steinbock lets the Rev. Eric Swearingen remain on the job as a pastor despite the fact that a jury found Swearingen guilty of molesting a boy.
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