NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., May 2, 2015

Bishops who served in the Diocese of Gallup have a long history of keeping secrets from its members and the public.

Bernard T. Espelage, who served from 1940 to 1969, and Jerome J. Hastrich, who served from 1969 to 1990, both allowed priests who served in other dioceses and who had been disciplined or had been sent to centers specializing in treating priests accused of child molestation to be transferred to the Gallup Diocese. None of this was reported to the members of the congregation that they were assigned to serve and many have now been named as committing the same crimes in this diocese.

Donald Edmond Pelotte, who served from 1990 to 2008, kept many priest sex abuse cases secret as he did aspects of his personal life that became public during his last…