TEXAS
El Paso Times
by Maria Cortez Gonzalez / El Paso Times
Posted: 07/28/2013
A group that has monitored abuse by Catholic priests is asking newly named El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz to disclose what he knows about a Kentucky priest convicted in 2004 of sexually molesting two boys.
Seitz, who has counseled victims of abuse by priests, said in an email he was surprised by the demand and said he couldn’t talk about it because of the sacred obligation of confidentiality concerning what is said in confession.
In an email, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests alleges that Seitz was told about the priest, the Rev. James Hargadon, in 1990 when Seitz was a parish priest.
“What did you do when you learned this information? And what did you do with it years later, in and after 2002, when Catholic officials promised to be ‘open and transparent’ about clergy sex crimes?” the letter stated.
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