PRELATES FELLED BY SEX SCANDALS |
United States | Worldwide
Locations where US Catholic bishops have resigned in connection with sex scandals. Match the numbers to the descriptions below.
Sexual scandals strike at highest level of US Catholic Church
Eight US Roman Catholic prelates have resigned since 1990 because of their alleged involvement in sex scandals; seven cases involved the abuse of minors. Two other bishops, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston and Bishop Manuel Moreno of Tucson, Ariz., resigned over their mishandling of abusive clergy.
T U C S O N, A R I Z. Bishop Manuel D. Moreno resigned on March 7, 2003, citing health reasons (he suffers from early Parkinson's disease and prostate cancer). Moreno apologized for his handling of Monsignor Robert C. Trupia, a multiple abuser, and other priests. The
Tucson diocese settled 11 clergy abuse lawsuits for an estimated $14 million in 2002.
B O S T O N Cardinal Bernard Law, perhaps America's most powerful Catholic Church official, resigned on Dec. 13, 2002, after a year of growing criticism over his failure to remove abusive priests from ministry in the Boston Archdiocese.
N E W Y O R K Auxiliary Bishop James McCarthy, former secretary to the late Cardinal John O'Connor, resigned on June 11, 2002, after admitting he had affairs with several women, reportedly including a 21-year-old.
L E X I N G T O N, K Y. Bishop J. Kendrick Williams resigned on June 11, 2002, after being accused in lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Louisville of abusing two minors and an 18-year-old decades ago. Williams denied the accusations.
M I L W A U K E E Archbishop Rembert Weakland resigned on May 25, 2002, after it became known that the Milwaukee Archdiocese in 1998 paid a $450,000 settlement to a man who claimed Weakland tried to assault him in 1979.
Weakland admitted to an "inappropriate relationship" with the man but denied the abuse charge.
P A L M B E A C H, F L A. Bishop Anthony O'Connell resigned on March 8, 2002, after admitting he repeatedly abused a teenage boy at the Hannibal, Mo., seminary he led during the 1970s. The victim received a $125,000 settlement from the Diocese of Jefferson City in 1996. Fall River, Mass., Bishop Sean Patrick O'Malley was named to replace him.
S A N T A R O S A,
C A L I F. Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann resigned on July 21, 1999, when a California priest claimed Ziemann had coerced him into sex acts after learning the priest had stolen parish funds. Ziemann confirmed the sexual relationship, but claimed it was consensual.
P A L M B E A C H, F L A. Bishop J. Keith Symons, who preceded Bishop Anthony O'Connell as head of the Palm Beach Diocese, became the first US bishop to resign over child sexual abuse on June 1, 1998. Symons admitted to molesting five teenage boys at three Florida parishes earlier in his career.
S A N T A F E, N. M. Archbishop Robert Sanchez, the nation's first Hispanic bishop, resigned on March 19, 1993, after admitting he had sexual relationships with at least five young women in New Mexico in the 1970s and '80s.
A T L A N T A The late Archbishop Eugene Marino, the nation's first black archbishop, resigned on July 10, 1990, upon admitting having an "intimate" relationship with a female parishioner in her 20s. Marino died in November 2000.
Sources: Associated Press, Globe archives, and other news reports
