TULSA (OK)
Associated Press [New York NY]
September 14, 2024
By Ken Miller
EDMOND, Okla. (AP) — Edward J. Slattery, a retired Catholic bishop who apologized for reinstating a priest who later admitted to sexually abusing an Oklahoma boy, has died, the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma said Saturday. He was 84.
Slattery died at his home in the Tulsa area late Friday following “a series of debilitating strokes,” Vicar General Fr. Gary Kastl said in a statement from the diocese.
In 2002, amid a Catholic Church sex abuse scandal involving clergy, Slattery apologized for reinstating the Rev. Kenneth Lewis in 1995 following allegations against him. Slattery said at the time that when allegations emerged in 1994, Lewis was initially removed from the ministry but was reinstated after receiving psychiatric treatment.
“I have made mistakes along the way, and I feel terrible about it, but I do not feel guilty about it,” Slattery told the Tulsa World. “The mistakes are probably part of a culture of trying to protect the church.”
Lewis was later accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old Oklahoma boy during a 2001 trip to Illinois. Lewis was removed from the ministry and resigned in 2007. He eventually pleaded guilty to one count of sex abuse.