Fla. Bishop Admits To Abuse

A Roman Catholic bishop resigned Friday after admitting he sexually abused a student at a Missouri seminary more than 25 years ago.

"I am truly deeply sorry for the pain, hurt, anger and confusion I have caused," said the Rev. Anthony J. O'Connell, bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach. "I've been loved since I entered this diocese, far more than anyone should be loved."

O'Connell admitted to allegations made by former student Christopher Dixon, now 40. Dixon said they two touched inappropriately in bed after he sought out O'Connell for counseling when he was a teen-age seminary student.

O'Connell, 63, was rector of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal, Mo., at the time.

"For those who will be angry, I certainly ask, when the time is right, that they pray for my forgiveness," O'Connell said.

O'Connell was installed in 1999 to replace Palm Beach Bishop J. Keith Symons, who stepped down in the wake of a sex scandal. Symons was first U.S. bishop to resign due to sexual involvement with boys.

As a result of the scandal, Florida's Catholic bishops began performing background checks on all clergy, lay employees and volunteers who work with children, elderly and disabled people.

O'Connell's admission came only hours after Florida's Catholic bishops issued a four-paragraph statement calling sexual abuse "both criminal and sinful," assuring their 2.2 million followers that the church has procedures to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct.

Michael McCarron, executive director of the Florida Catholic Conference, did not immediately return a phone call.

The statement, published in The Florida Catholic newspaper and on the Web site flacathconf.org, said procedures are in place "to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct by church personnel or volunteers."

David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in St. Louis, called the revelation "one more painful reminder that an enormous gap exists between the church's wonderful, flowery words and its leaders' terrible deeds."

People who knew O'Connell while he was bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville said these events were surprising.

"It is totally contrary to what I know of Bishop O'Connell," said Vann Johnston, chancellor for the Diocese of Knoxville.

"He is a fine, laudable, charismatic, high-spirited man. I am saddened by these events," said Rev. Bill Couch, a Lutheran pastor who worked with O'Connell in the Association of Christian Denominational Leaders in Knoxville.

"I support him but each of us are responsible for our actions before God," said Couch. "I'm sure that his repentance is genuine."

Dixon said the abuse began in the ninth grade and continued through the 12th grade.

In a settlement with Dixon in 1996, the Jefferson City, Mo., Diocese gave him $125,000 with the promise he not pursue further claims against the diocese, O'Connell and two other priests. The diocese did not admit to Dixon's allegations in the settlement.

The other priests are the Rev. Manus Daly, who allegedly abused Dixon at the Hannibal seminary, and the Rev. John Fischer, who Dixon said abused him at a Catholic school before Dixon entered the seminary. Daly was removed from a Marceline, Mo., church this week and Fischer was removed from the priesthood in 1993 after allegations involving other children.

The resignation comes amid a growing sex abuse scandal involving priests in Boston and around the country.

In 1993, Archbishop Robert Sanchez of Santa Fe, N.M., resigned over his involvement with several women, some teen-agers. And Bishop Joseph Ferrario of Honolulu was accused of molestation in 1989 but repeatedly denied the charge and a court dismissed a 1991 suit against him.

U.S. Archbishop Eugene Marino of Atlanta and Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann of Santa Rosa, Calif., resigned after sex scandals involving adults.

The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in Chicago was charged with abuse in a 1993 lawsuit but the accuser later recanted.