BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News
February 6, 2019
By Jay Tokasz
A lawyer for the Buffalo Diocese defended retired Bishop Edward U. Kmiec’s handling of a case of alleged clergy sex abuse from Kmiec’s time as bishop of the Nashville Diocese.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests of Tennessee said this week that Kmiec allowed the Rev. James A. Rudisill to retire as a priest in good standing and remain in ministry, despite the priest’s alleged admission in 1994 that he had molested a 12-year-old girl in the 1950s.
But diocesan attorney Lawlor F. Quinlan III said that Kmiec did remove Rudisill from ministry and forbade him from presenting himself as a priest. A lawyer for the Nashville Diocese also notified governmental authorities in Tennessee about the case, Quinlan said in a letter emailed to The News late Tuesday.
“It is unfair and wrong to criticize Bishop Kmiec in this case when he correctly removed the offender from ministry,” said Quinlan.
Quinlan also suggested that The News did not provide the diocese with enough time to respond to the criticisms of Kmiec.
The News called Kmiec last week Friday and he referred the query to Buffalo Diocese spokeswoman Kathy Spangler, who provided no comments. The News also asked Rick Musacchio, spokesman for the Diocese of Nashville, for details about the handling of the Rudisill case and Musacchio said he did not know any additional details.
The News published its story online Monday afternoon and in print editions on Tuesday. No one from the Buffalo Diocese got back to The News to comment until Quinlan’s letter Tuesday evening.
Kmiec was Nashville bishop from 1992 to 2004 and Buffalo bishop from 2004 until his retirement in 2012.
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