Category:Kansas Dioceses
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General
(alphabetical listing)
Albert accusation Ray Albert, who said he and three brothers were molested by a priest in an El Dorado children's home, late 1950s.
Archdiocese of Kansas City
Archdiocese of Kansas City abuse Five priests had been accused of sexual abuse up to January 2003 (NYT survey).
(alphabetical listing)
[5 offenders acknowledged, 11 listed]
Acheampong affair Rev. Thomas Acheampong accused of abuse. removed 2001. Refused to return to Ghana.
Baskett affair Rev. Jack Baskett raped Kay Goodnow when she was 15 years-old a hotel in Ensenada in 1952. She filed suit against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, March 2008.
Brewer affair Rev. Michael Brewer accused of abuse, sued 1997.
Cawley affair Rev. Thomas S. Cawley, a Shawnee priest of the Vincentian religious order and reports to the St. Louis mission Cawley worked with Evansville's Daughters of Charity and cared for elderly and sick Evansville sisters in 2002 and 2003. Cawley assisted at St. Joseph's Church, was placed on administrative leave August 2004, according to the Midwest Province of the Congregation of the Mission in St. Louis, after allegations of sexual abuse 23 to 25 years earlier.
- Hong Kong affair Rev. Thomas Cawley faced a civil suit alleging he sexually abused a 10-year-old altar boy while serving in Hong Kong 1979. Cawley told the plaintiff that “the sexual abuse was a form of God's punishment that the young boy needed.”
- Congregation of the Mission, Midwest Province (commonly, Vincentians) Order is based in St. Louis.
Forsythe case Rev. James A. Forsythe pleaded guilty to trying to rape a 15-year-old boy while an associate pastor at Holy Cross Church in Overland Park, KS, outside Kansas City, and spent 120 days in prison, December 1989.
Note Forsythe left the Catholic Church as he “was not called to be celibate,” becoming a minister in the Metropolitan Community Church in Blackhills, SD.
Haegelin affair Rev. William Haegelin accused of abuse, removed 2002.
Hart affair Rev. Joseph Hart was accused by Tony Padilla of trying to sexually assault him when he approached him to conduct his marriage ceremony.
Reardon affair Rev. Thomas Reardon was accused of repeatedly and violently raped Tony Padilla in 1973 and 1974, while he attended St. John Francis Regis Parish in Kansas City. Later when Padilla intended to get married, he approached then-Rev. Joseph Hart to perform the ceremony, but Hart attempted to sexually assault him. Padilla filed a lawsuit against several church officials, making allegations of sexual abuse and cover-ups. The suit names Reardon, who at one time was assigned to Santa Fe Church in Buckner, Rev. Joseph Hart, Bishop Raymond J. Boland, Rev. Patrick Rush and the Diocese of Kansas City.
Schmitz case Rev. Dennis E. Schmitz convicted of abuse of boy, 32-month sentence 2002.
Ward affair Rev. Thomas J. Ward accused of abuse, sued 1997.
Wurtz affair Br. Camillus Wurtz, OSB, accused of abuse, removed 2004.
Diocese of Doge City
Diocese of Doge City Serves southwest Kansas
No data
Diocese of Salina
Diocese of Salina (formerly, Diocese of Concordia) Established on 2 August 1887.þ It was moved from Concordia to Salina on 23 December 1944, covers 31 counties in northern Kansas, stretching from the Colorado line east to Manhattan including the counties of Cheyenne, Sherman, Wallace, Logan, Thomas, Rawlins, Decatur, Sheridan, Gove, Trego, Graham, Norton, Phillips, Rooks, Ellis, Russell, Osborne, Smith, Jewel, Mitchell, Lincoln, Ellsworth, Saline, Ottawa, Cloud, Republic, Washington, Clay, Dickinson, Geary, and Riley.þ It covers 26,685 square miles and has a Catholic population of 50, 113 in 93 parishes. The number of priests in the diocese has dropped from 86 to 43.
Diocese of Salina abuse One priest had been accused of sexual abuse up to January 2003 (NYT Survey).
(alphabetical listing)
[1 offender identified, 1 listed]
Anon priest No data.
Diocese of Wichita
Diocese of Wichita One priest had been accused of sexual abuse up to January 2003. Diocese of Wichita received one allegation involving a priest in 2002 but Church officials did not report it to civil authorities after they determined the allegations were false.
Episcopal cover-up Daniel Romey’s mother went to diocesan headquarters in the 1970s and made a complaint against Larson but never heard back from the diocese. Bishop Thomas Olmsted said the diocese has no record of any complaint involving Daniel Romey. Bishop Eugene Gerber said he responded to several allegations of sexual abuse against Larson in 1988 by removing him from St. Mary's in Newton and sending him to St. Luke's Institute in Maryland, which diagnoses and treats priests with sexual disorders. Gerber said Larson was stripped of his title and duties as a priest and told he could never return to Kansas. Parishioners were told in the parish bulletin that he had been removed because of extreme exhaustion. In 1990, Bobby Thompson’s mother wrote a letter to Gerber, saying her son was behaving in a way that therapists said indicated he was a victim of sexual abuse. He was even talking of killing himself, She wanted to know if the rumors about Larson were true so she and Bobby's therapist could figure out how to help him. She said the reply from the diocese expressed sorrow over the family's problems, said priests were encouraged to interact with children, and wished them luck. The letter did not mention Larson. She was so upset with the response that she left the church. Olmsted said the diocese has no record of her letter.
(alphabetical listing)
[1 offender identified, 3 listed]
Anon priest “Joe” was sexually assaulted by his parish priest over three years as he entered his teens in the early 1970s but he told no one for more than 30 years. Instead, he was “suffocating,” as he put it, “on my stench of shame.” He was convinced it was somehow his fault that his parish priest had molested him. He believed he was guilty of an offense “even God could not forgive.” He contacted the Diocese of Wichita in 2003 to tell them of his abuse only because “I wanted to be counted” among the number of children abused by priests,
Gilardi case Rev. Ronald Sam Gilardi was convicted 2001, given 5 years probation.
Larson affair Serial pedophile who drove five of his victims to suicide, former priest Robert K. Larson (1932-) was sentenced to 3-10 years in prison for the felony crime of indecent liberties with a child and one year in jail for each of 3 counts of sexual battery, a misdemeanor, committed against four of his former altar boys, February 2002. Two dozen young men were molested by Larson over the years that he worked as a priest in south central Kansas. In all, five boys eventually killed themselves years after being molested by him. “But, rather than engage in cross fire about what sad event caused them to take their own lives many years after he knew them, Robert Larson simply hopes and prays that the families of these men are able to find some peace and comfort,” said Dan Monnatm Larson’s lawyer. Larson retired for “stress-related problems,” 1988.
- Patterson abuse Eric Patterson, who dreamed of being a priest, confessed that he had been molested by Larson while he was an altar boy at the age of 12 in their hometown of Conway Springs, southwest of Wichita, but did not tell his family about it until his second hospitalization for manic depression and suicidal tendencies when he was in his late 20s, shot himself at age 29, 1999. His suicide note written six days before his death noted, “Victims of sexual abuse take the blame, shame, guilt and abuse into themselves, when it should be placed on those who abuse.”
- Rodriguez abuse Robert Rodriguez (Bobby), who dreamed of being a priest, was one of the four victims whose complaints formed the basis of sex abuse charges. His brother, Gilbert and cousin, Paul Tafolla, were victims of Larson as well. Both men committed suicide. Bobby began developing tics: He'd run his tongue over his lips so often they'd get red and chapped. He'd flip his eyelids up repeatedly. He developed an extreme phobia about bare feet? his or anyone else's. And he would often go more than a week between bowel movements. His grades and attitude plummeted. He shot out windows at a church and a home. Bobby continued to seesaw into and out of deep depressions and said “There is no God.” On 4 October 1996, Bobby ran a hose from the exhaust pipe to the window of his car in the garage and killed himself. He was 21.
- Gilbert Rodriguez abuse Gilbert Rodriguez, who dreamed of being a priest, graduated from Conception Seminary College in northwest Missouri in 1994, but rejected going on the the priesthood. Gilbert was found shot to death at the end of a grain sorghum field five blocks from his mother's house in September 1998. He was 31.
- Tafolla abuse Larson victim Paul Tafolla framed the memorial folder from Gilbert Rodriguez's funeral in his bedroom. Seventeen months later, after being passed over for a job he wanted, he wrote an angry, rambling suicide note. Then he washed down two bottles of 500 mg Tylenol with alcohol and some Benadryl.
- Romey abuse Daniel Romey, who dreamed of being a priest, clashed with his father and his mother thought counseling from a priest might help. She approached Robert Larson, who in the 1960s was the diocesan director of the Catholic Youth Organization. Daniel had wanted to be a priest since first grade. His trips to Larson’s Church of the Resurrection went on for years. But as time passed, his mood darkened, and he turned away from the church. He was hospitalized at St. Francis Regional Medical Center for acute depression when he was 17. He would be hospitalized several more times over the next five years, and would attempt suicide three times. During his treatment, he told his mother that Larson had sodomized him She went to diocesan headquarters in the 1970s and made a complaint against Larson but never heard back from the diocese. Bishop Thomas Olmsted said the diocese has no record of any complaint involving Daniel Romey. He had shot himself in the head at 23.
