CASPER (WY)
Casper Star-Tribune
December 7, 2018
By Seth Klamann
The Diocese of Cheyenne is compiling a list of priests, bishops and deacons who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse since 1950, Bishop Steven Biegler announced this week, signaling that the Wyoming diocese is joining a wave of public self-examinations by dioceses across the country.
“The Diocese should have a current master list so it can be confident that it has applied the current standards to all living credibly accused offenders — and especially the standards of zero tolerance — in all situations,” Biegler wrote in a column in the December issue of the Wyoming Catholic Register. He added the review will also examine how the six bishops who have served since 1950 — himself included — handled the allegations.
The diocese previously conducted a review in 2002 — the same year that former Bishop Joseph Hart was cleared of abuse allegations by the Natrona County District Attorney’s Office — of clergymen who were working in it at the time. That review “verified that no priest with a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor was serving in the public ministry in any way in the Diocese of Cheyenne,” Biegler wrote.
This latest examination comes as dioceses across the country conduct sweeping reviews of their own troubled histories with clerical sexual abuse. On Thursday, the church named 29 men accused of abuse in southern Alabama, allegations that dated back to 1950. In November, a diocese in Missouri named 33 priests and religious brothers who had been credibly accused. In August, a grand jury in Pennsylvania wrote that more than 300 Catholic priests had molested more than 1,000 children for decades.
The work on this latest review began after mid-September, when the Star-Tribune requested information regarding all credibly accused priests, all settlements and the amount paid in these agreements dating back to 1950, said Rev. Carl Gallinger, the diocese’s vicar general. He said the “commitment” to conducting the review predated the newspaper’s request. He said he had no time estimate on when the review, which will be conducted by an “independent law firm,” would be completed.
Biegler was unavailable to comment Thursday. It’s unclear how much detail will be in the list.
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