Category:District Of Columbia Diocese
From Eurêka
District Of Columbia Diocese
Note Only a handful of dioceses in the US have published extensive lists of names of priests and other church workers with substantiated allegations of the sexual abuse of minors against them. This lack of candor is but one symptom in the greatest criminal conspiracy in history - the raping and other sexual abuse of children throughout the Roman Catholic Church in every part of the world.
Sex-abuse hot line con Diocese sets up a sex-abuse hot line to counsel victims, which is manned by a smooth-talking lawyer, who acts as a lawyer and investigator for the diocese, not a therapist. Status as a lawyer is not revealed, and the “so-called “councilor” discourages the victim from seeking legal support.
- See also Archdiocese of Mobile hot-line
- See also Diocese of Sacramento hot line
Litigation gold rush Catholic Church's legal problems are worse even than most people realize: $1 billion in damages paid out for the victims of pedophile priests by 2004, indications that the total will approach $5 billion before the crisis is over. But this wave of litigation does not end there. The lawyers who were winning settlements from Catholic dioceses cast about for the next targets: other churches, schools, government agencies, day care centers, police departments, Indian reservations, Hollywood. Plaintiff lawyers and other litigators have parlayed the priest crisis into a billion-dollar money machine.
Archdiocese of Washington 11 priests had been accused of sexual abuse up to January 2003. Archdiocese revised that number to 26 of its priests who had been credibly accused of child sexual abuse over the previous 56 years and that it had spent $4.3 million on victim compensation, legal fees and other expenses stemming from those cases, c. 85% of which had occurred before 1980, and the last known incidents occurred in 1990, 6 November 2003.
Archdiocese of Washington settlement Reached a $1.3 million settlement with 16 men who were sexually abused by priests between 1962 and 1982, 15 December 2006.
Moersen accusation William Moersen was employed as an organist at St. Catherine Labouré Parish in Wheaton from 1958 to 1976 and again from 1991 to 2002. In 2001, he informed the pastor who was in charge of the parish and employment decisions that he had been sexually abused by a parish choirmaster from 1958 to 1964. The abuse, Moersen alleged, occurred at the parish during church services, at church-sponsored functions and at other locations. Beginning in 1958 and through 1964, he said, he communicated to at least four different priests that he was being abused. In 2001, immediately after reporting the sexual abuse again, Moersen alleges that the pastor began to find fault with his work. In November 2001, Moersen was told that he should retire and was offered up to $2,000 to seek psychiatric counseling. On 17 February 2002, his employment was terminated unilaterally based on his “apparent inability to work cooperatively.”
Mollish accusation Rev. John M. Mollish left the priesthood in 1980 because of abuse he suffered at the hands of a Catholic priest while in the seminary. Around 1998, Mollish's brother told the Archdiocese of Washington that he, too, had been abused by a priest. Mollish said the church did nothing to act on his complaint and that the priest died. In his brother's case it took the archdiocese until July 2002 to remove the priest from active ministry. “Had we not been vigilant in reporting this abuse to the police, and had I not been persistent over a five-year period looking for other victims of this priest, I am convinced that the archdiocese would not have removed my brother’s abuser....In brief, we were dismissed as not credible by the church,’ in evidence to Maryland lawmakers 25 February 2003.
Wojnowski accusation John Wojnowski (1943-) was born in Poland and grew up in Italy where he attended Catholic schools. He was sexually molested by a priest when he was 15 years old in Washington, DC. He began a one-man campaign to expose what he calls the "corporate crime" of the Catholic Church. By his account, he tried to make his case to the leadership of the Washington Diocese, but his calls and letters went unanswered. He finally managed to connect with a member of the Church hierarchy who responded to his request for reparations by informing John that the priest who had “allegedly” abused him had been dead for many years, but that the Church was nonetheless willing to pay for his therapy. He also offered to pray for John.
- Monsignor visit “He was Italian, but spoke perfect English.” The shadowy monsignor began by reminding John that the statute of limitations made it impossible to prosecute the priest who had abused him. He then offended John by suggesting that he might have been partly responsible for his own abuse. Before disappearing into the night, he decried the severity of US laws against pedophilia and intimated that these might soon change.
(alphabetical listing)
[11 offenders identified, 14 listed]
Anon choir director Church organist William Moersen was a sixth-grader in 1958 when he took over as the organist at St. Catherine Laboure Church, where he was sexually abused by the choir director. Moersen sued the Archdiocese of Washington in 2004, saying that Rev. Robert G. Amey, the pastor of St. Catherine Laboure Church, Wheaton parish, fired him six months after he told him that he had been sexually abused there as a child.
Chleboski case Rev. C. Thomas Chleboski was convicted of abuse of boys, sentenced to 35 years, 1995.
Dillard affair Monsignor Russell Dillard was removed from his parish after allegations were made about inappropriate relationships with two teenage girls over a five-year period ending in 1984, March 2002. Admission, removed 2002.
Finan case Rev. James Aubrey Finan (1933-) of Washington, DC, who had already served jail time for sexual abuse having pleaded guilty to one count of unnatural and perverted sex practice for allegedly abusing a 8-year-old boy in 1966, 1997. Finan pleaded guilty 29 January 2003 to one count of unnatural and perverted sex, was given a five-year sentence, but suspended, 31 March 2003. The incident occurred in Silver Spring in 1966 when Finan was a priest at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Kensington.
Hartel case Rev. Edward T. Hartel admitted abuse of altar boy. Convicted, then acquitted, 1996.
Lavin affair Rev. Paul E. Lavin (1942-) was suspended from his duties at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Washington DC, pending the outcome of two police investigations and a separate inquiry launched by the Archdiocese of Washington, 2002.
- Lavin investigations reopened Prince George’s County police said they were reopening their investigation into 1970 allegations of sexual abuse of an 8-year-old altar boy at Mount Calvary Parish in Forestville, a decision to revisit the case due in part to similar allegations raised by a Fairfax County, VA, man who claimed Lavin sexually abused him on two weekend trips to Pennsylvania during the 1971-72 school year, when he was a 15-year-old student at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville and Lavin was the school's chaplain. Reopened July 2002.
Lee case Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Matthew Lee (1964-) was an HIV-positive Catholic priest assigned to the Naval Academy form 2003 to 2006. He pleaded guilty to forceful sodomy at the Quantico Marine Corps Base to forceful sodomy in Annapolis and at the Naval Academy and was sentenced to two years in military prison, 7 December 2007.
McCutcheon case Rev. Peter M. McCutcheon accused of abuse of children. Convicted 25-year sentence, 1986.
Petrella case I Rev. Robert Joseph Petrella, ordained in 1964, was accused of sexual abuse in 1989 and was stripped of his ministry. Allegations in Prince George's County, Maryland, resulted in a 1997 misdemeanor battery charge for sexually assaulting altar boys in the late 1960s for which he served seven days in jail.
- Petrella case II Rev. Robert Joseph Petrella pleaded guilty in Prince George's to three charges involving sex abuse incidents dating to the 1960s that came to light in 2002, March 2003 and received an 18-month prison sentence 26 June 2003. Petrella was laicized by the Vatican 7 February 2003.
Pritchard case Rev. Edward Pritchard (deceased), arrested for alleged abuse 1995.
Salisbury case Rev. Walter Dayton Salisbury, Josephite, charged 1993 with sexual abuse of boy.
Schaefer case Rev. Thomas S. Schaefer accused of abuse, convicted 1996. 16-year sentence reduced to 1 year. Lived at Vianney.
Slevin case Rev. Timothy Slevin was convicted, having admitted abusing 6 other boys, 1986.
Smith case Rev. Alphonsus M. Smith accused of abuse, convicted 1996 to 16 years, reduced to 1 year.
Walsh affair Rev. William J. Walsh, Jesuit, accused of abuse, 1998.
