CASPER (WY)
Casper Star-Tribune | Via Wyoming News Exchange
August 30, 2019
By Seth Klamann and Shane Sanderson
A national group of victims of priest abuse called on the Catholic Church on Monday to send former Wyoming Bishop Joseph Hart to a friary in rural Kansas, which would mean expelling him from his diocese-owned home in Cheyenne.
“When an abuser is suspended or gets older, he’s not magically cured, so even after ousting or even defrocking sex offending clerics, the Catholic hierarchy has a duty to safeguard others from them,” the group, the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, said Monday in a statement.
Hart has been accused since at least the early 1990s of sexually abusing boys, with some victims saying he abused them as far back as 1963. He has consistently denied those allegations. His former diocese, in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, has settled with 10 men who say they were abused by Hart. An additional four men have come forward in Missouri in just the past year, the diocese there told the Star-Tribune.
In Wyoming, where Hart was bishop from 1976 to 2001, Cheyenne police launched an investigation last summer into his alleged past misconduct in the Capital City. At least three victims have come forward in Wyoming and accused Hart of abuse, according to the Diocese of Cheyenne. Two weeks ago, police announced that they were recommending charges against two men related to clergy abuse.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.