CHEYENNE (WY)
Kansas City Star [Kansas City MO]
August 23, 2023
By Judy L. Thomas
Joseph Hart, a former Kansas City priest and retired Wyoming bishop whose tenure was clouded by a string of sexual abuse allegations deemed credible by two U.S. bishops but dismissed by the Vatican, died Wednesday. He was 91.
His death was confirmed late Wednesday afternoon by the Diocese of Cheyenne. Hart had been dealing with health issues for years and had recently entered hospice care.
Hart had been the subject of abuse allegations spanning more than three decades and was the target of two criminal investigations in Wyoming that both ended without charges being filed. He also was one of several priests featured in “Procession,” a highly acclaimed 2021 Netflix documentary about clergy sexual abuse.
News of Hart’s death evoked a strong reaction from sexual abuse survivors and their families.
“May his victims know that they are believed,” said Ed Gavagan, of New York City, who grew up in Cheyenne and whose allegations against Hart led to the criminal investigations. “And may the families of those victims who died without knowing that fact be comforted by the community of survivors who worked against all odds to expose both the abusers and the long, shameful collusion of the Catholic Church in hiding their sins.”
Darrel Hunter, who with his two brothers was among the minors Hart was accused of abusing in Kansas City decades ago, said the death was difficult to process.
“Upon learning of his death, as a victim of abuse by Joseph Hart when I was a boy, I can only express profound disappointment in his failure and that of his church to bring about a just solution for the harm that he caused to so many families,” he said.
Hart had maintained his innocence over the years. After the Vatican exonerated him in 2021, his attorney, Thomas Jubin, said in a statement that the allegations were unwarranted and accused Steven Biegler, the bishop of Cheyenne who pushed for an investigation, of “grandstanding.”
“Bishop Hart has had to live under the cloud of these allegations for many years, especially so since Bishop Biegler was installed as Bishop of Cheyenne and began this divisive, irresponsible and unfathomable campaign against his predecessor,” Jubin said.
“Despite this, Bishop Hart asks me to convey that he continues to pray for all involved in this case so that they may find peace and healing. He now asks, and I ask, too, that he may now be afforded peace in the twilight of this life as he prepares to meet his God in the next.”
The Cheyenne diocese had remained responsible for Hart’s care until his death.
Born Sept. 26, 1931, Hart was a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph from 1956 to 1976. He became auxiliary bishop of Cheyenne in 1976 and was bishop from 1978 until retiring in 2001.
Allegations against Hart first surfaced in 1989 and 1992, with two Missouri men alleging that Hart had sexually abused them when they were boys and he was a priest in Kansas City. Church officials at the time found those allegations not credible, but the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese helped one of the men buy a pickup truck and paid for his counseling. The diocese also paid for counseling for two sisters of the other man. In 2018, Bishop James V. Johnston found those allegations to be substantiated.
In 2002, Gavagan accused Hart of sexually abusing him as a boy when his family lived in Cheyenne. Authorities in Cheyenne concluded there was no evidence to support the allegations. But in July 2018, Biegler — then the new bishop of Cheyenne — announced that the diocese had reopened its investigation into Hart.
Biegler said the previous investigation was flawed and that a second man had come forward alleging sexual abuse by Hart. Both men’s allegations, Biegler said, had been deemed “credible and substantiated.”
Wyoming authorities, spurred by the Cheyenne diocese, opened a new criminal investigation. If charged, Hart would have become the highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric in the country to face criminal prosecution for sexual abuse of a minor.
Though the alleged abuse occurred decades ago, Wyoming — unlike most states — has no statute of limitations for criminal prosecutions, so charges can be filed years later.
In August 2019, the Cheyenne Police Department recommended that Hart be charged. By September 2019, the Diocese of Cheyenne said it had received a total of six credible allegations against Hart.
According to the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, Hart was named by 10 individuals in lawsuits regarding child sexual abuse claims in that diocese dating from the 1970s. Those claims were part of two settlements of $10 million each that the diocese entered into in 2008 and 2014 in cases involving dozens of victims and numerous priests.
In September 2019, the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese said it had received four additional allegations against Hart in the past year.
In 2020, a special prosecutor assigned to the criminal case in Cheyenne declined to file charges against Hart, citing insufficient evidence. That decision, Biegler said, didn’t mean the alleged victims were not credible.
“I commend the victims who have spoken courageously about their abuse,” Biegler said in a strongly worded statement. “I also stand behind the determination made by the Diocese of Cheyenne that allegations of sexual abuse against former Bishop Hart are credible.”
In January 2021, despite both Biegler’s and Johnston’s findings that the allegations against Hart were credible, the Vatican cleared him of seven accusations that he sexually abused minors and said five others could not be proven “with moral certitude.”
But the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also issued a canonical rebuke to Hart, the Cheyenne diocese said, “for his flagrant lack of prudence as a priest and bishop for being alone with minors in his private residence and on various trips, which could have been potential occasions endangering the ‘obligation to observe continence’ and that would ‘give rise to scandal among the faithful.’”
Hart also was rebuked “for his disregard of the urgent requests that he refrain from public engagements that would cause scandal among the faithful due to the numerous accusations against him and the civil and canonical investigations and processes being conducted in his regard,” the Cheyenne diocese said.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reminded Hart that restrictions placed upon him by Pope Francis in 2018 remained in force, the diocese said. Those restrictions prohibited Hart from having “any contact with minors, youth, seminarians and vulnerable adults” and from “presiding or participating anywhere in any public celebration of the Liturgy.”
Biegler, clearly disappointed in the Vatican’s exoneration of Hart, had a message for the accusers who had come forward.
“Today, I want the survivors to know that I support and believe you,” Biegler said in the diocese’s statement. “I understand that this announcement will not bring closure to the survivors, their family members, Bishop Hart and all those affected.
“I will continue to work and pray for their healing and for all involved in these painful and distressing matters. In the Diocese of Cheyenne, we remain steadfast in our commitment to protect the most vulnerable and to accompany those who have been harmed on a journey of healing.”
The Cheyenne diocese said the accusations against Hart involved 11 males and one female. “Moral certitude” is held to be equivalent to “beyond a reasonable doubt,” the standard of proof required for a criminal conviction, it said.
“These findings do not equate to innocence; rather, a high burden of proof has not been met,” the diocese said.
Johnston issued a statement on the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese’s website at the time, saying the case was of special interest “because several of the accusations against Bishop Hart originated from our diocese, dating to the time when he served here as a priest prior to becoming a bishop in Cheyenne in 1976.”
“This has been a long and often difficult process, especially for the survivors and their families who bravely shared their stories,” Johnston said. “I am grateful for the courage and perseverance of those who brought this matter to a point of decision; the survivors, their families and Bishop Biegler.”