SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle PI
Posted on May 7, 2014 | By Joel Connelly
The Archdiocese of Seattle ignored the recommendations of its own review board, keeping secret the restrictions put on a priest whose conduct the panel described as “egregious.” A decade later, it is facing the upset flock of a north end Catholic parish.
Archbishop J. Peter Sartain and top deputies faced an angry audience of more than 150 parishoners at St. Bridget’s Church on Tuesday night.
Sartain had to acknowledge mistakes in a letter which claimed the archdiocese “learned recently that Harry Quigg did not comply with the terms of his ministry restrictions.”
In 2004, members of the archdiocesan case review board urged in a letter to Archbishop Alex Brunett, Sartain’s predecessor, that names of “offending” priests be disclosed:
“It will be much harder for those offending priests who do practice their ministry, even though barred, to do so because the entire church community will know and can inform the chancery if there is a barred priest involved in ministry.”
The board members had Harry Quigg in mind, writing:
“This is not an entirely academic discussion because a review board member was in the congregation of a liturgy that included the active participation of a priest whom you earlier indicated had been barred from the ministry.”
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