PUEBLO (CO)
Pueblo Chieftain
Dec. 14, 2019
By Anthony A. Mestas
The Most Rev. Stephen Berg said his hurt is indescribable, knowing that children have been sexually abused by priests in the Pueblo Diocese and throughout the Catholic Church nationwide.
Berg, who grew up in a strong Catholic family and attended Catholic schools, said he wasn’t exposed to anything like this growing up.
“As I became a priest, I was 49 years old. Soon after is really when this stuff started to hit with the Dallas Charter. I was in Fort Worth (Texas), and dealing with these situations has basically been an intrinsic part of my life,” Berg said, thumbing through a notebook containing the Pueblo Diocese’s policies and procedures in dealing with reported abuse.
The diocese has adopted a zero-tolerance policy, removing any priest or minister for any act of sexual misconduct with a minor. And the diocese immediately reports any suspected child abuse to law enforcement and cooperates fully in any investigation.
Since 2002, the church has been designated as mandated reporters. A mandated reporter is a person who, because of his or her profession, is legally required to report any suspicion of child abuse or neglect to the relevant authorities.
Berg says that any reasonable suspicion of sexual misconduct of any kind and any abuse to a child — including physical abuse — is to be immediately reported to the vicar for clergy, the vicar general, the director of human resources and the bishop himself.
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