MICHIGAN
Deadline Detroit
Popular Roman Catholic priest and pastor, Father David West, served in about 20 parishes in southeast Michigan. He died in 2004 at age 65.
Now, more than 10 years after his passing, the church has concluded that an allegation of sexual abuse involving a minor is “credible,” Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Prss reports.
Laitner reports:
The Rev. David West died in 2004 at age 65, well before anyone came forward charging him with sexual abuse, according to the Archdiocese of Detroit.
But church officials “put no time limits on the reporting of sexual abuse of minors” by members of the priesthood or any other personnel connected with churches and related institutions such as parochial schools and seminaries, said Joe Kohn, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
“It doesn’t matter when it happens or when it’s reported. We try to determine if it’s credible and, if it is, we notify every place” in which the perpetrator ever served because “that increases the likelihood that this might have occurred elsewhere,” Kohn said.
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