COVINGTON (KY)
WCPO TV 9
Nov. 13, 2019
By Craig Cheatham, Paula Christian and Dan Monk
The Diocese of Covington hired two former FBI agents to review its records on priests over the past 59 years to determine if all allegations of child sexual abuse have been reported to authorities.
A diocese spokeswoman announced the independent review on Tuesday, just days before the WCPO I-Team is scheduled to publish and air a three-month investigation into how local Catholic Church leaders handle allegations of priest sexual abuse.
Spokeswoman Laura Keener did not respond to the I-Team’s numerous requests for information or an interview over the past several weeks, until she forwarded a Messenger story to the team on Tuesday. Messenger is the Catholic newspaper for the Diocese of Covington.
In the online story , Keener wrote that an independent review of priest files began after Bishop Roger Foys announced it at a priest retreat in early October. Chief Investigative Reporter Craig Cheatham first reached out to the diocese in September.
“Bishop Foys and the Diocesan Review Board initiated the independent review as a way to continue to assure the priests and people that the Diocese of Covington has, as far as is humanly possible, addressed the scourge of sexual abuse of minors by its priests,” Keener wrote.
The Diocese of Covington has never published a list of credibly accused priests and is one of only 10 dioceses nationwide that has not announced an intention to do so, according to an Associated Press investigation.
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