ILLINOIS/KANSAS
State Journal-Register
By Chris Dettro
Staff Writer
Posted Feb. 20, 2014
A Springfield monsignor who has served several churches in the local Catholic diocese has been named the next bishop of the Wichita, Kan., diocese.
According to a news release from the Springfield diocese, Msgr. Carl Kemme was named by Pope Francis to be the 11th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita. The appointment was announced Thursday in Washington, D.C., by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.
Kemme, 53, is vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Catholic Diocese of Springfield. He served as the diocese’s administrator between the terms of former Bishop George Lucas and current Bishop Thomas John Paprocki. …
A spokesman for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called Kemme’s promotion “disturbing.”
Barbara Dorris, outreach director of the St. Louis-based organization, said the Springfield diocesan staff “made a number of worrisome decisions” with Kemme in charge or as second-in-command.
Dorris said the diocese temporarily allowed the Rev. Robert “Bud” DeGrand to resign from his posts rather than suspending him after he was accused of molesting children. It also allowed the Rev. Thomas Donovan to remain a priest in Alton after he was found by Springfield police wearing an orange jumpsuit and a leather bondage-type mask, SNAP said.
Dorris said SNAP ‘is not optimistic that he (Kemme) will take real steps to reform long-standing, deeply rooted patterns of irresponsible, self-serving behavior by bishops in this ongoing crisis.”
It urged him to post the names of all credibly accused child-molesting clerics on his diocesan website.
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