N.H. Diocese Escapes Criminal Charges
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester averted unprecedented criminal charges, agreeing that it probably would have been convicted of failing to protect children from sexually abusive priests, the attorney general said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the embattled Boston archdiocese released more files on priests suspected of misconduct, as calls continued for the resignation of the archdiocese leader, Bernard Cardinal Law. Law remained in Rome on a surprise visit.
The settlement, announced at a news conference by Attorney General Philip McLaughlin, means the church won't face child endangerment charges.
The settlement has unspecified provisions to protect children from abuse in the future and calls for full disclosure of past abuses by priests and officials of the diocese.
While individual priests around the country have been convicted of criminal charges, and dioceses have been accused in civil lawsuits of complicity, experts have said they knew of no criminal charges ever filed against a U.S. diocese.
Showing off Bishop John B. McCormack's signature on the settlement, McLaughlin said: "The diocese acknowledges the state has evidence likely to sustain a conviction" under the state's child endangerment statute.
The wide-ranging investigation, which began in February, involved nearly 50 priests and more than 100 alleged victims, and covered conduct back to the 1960s, prosecutors have said.
It focused on misdemeanor provisions of the statute punishable, for institutions, by fines of up to $20,000 per violation.
McLaughlin had asked for a special meeting of an investigative grand jury in Manchester on Friday. Sources had said the session was to seek indictments against the diocese.
It was triggered by a flood of sexual abuse charges against Boston-area priests beginning late last year. Cardinal Law has been under siege ever since, accused of overseeing the transfer of suspect priests to public ministries where they had the chance to strike again.
Law headed to Rome Sunday after the release of case files last week that depicted priests engaged in sex and drug use. In one case, a priest seduced girls studying to become nuns, telling them he was the "second coming of Christ." In another case, a priest fathered at least two children and abandoned their mother while she was suffering a drug overdose.
Also last week, an archdiocese financial panel authorized Law to seek Vatican approval for an unprecedented bankruptcy filing to deal with the 400 or so lawsuits brought by alleged victims of child-molesting priests.
Priests have begun circulating petitions among the clergy calling on Law to resign, joining a chorus of parishioners. Only the pope can accept Law's resignation. Diocese officials have not said why Law went to Rome.
Records made public Monday show the archdiocese took at least some allegations of sexual abuse seriously.
The Rev. Paul Manning, for example, was removed from his ministry, even after he was acquitted of indecent assault and battery of an 11-year-old boy in 1993, and the alleged victim's parents denied he had been assaulted.
The files also include a priest dismissed by Cardinal Bernard Law in 1995 for kissing a 19-year-old seminarian.
Another priest was removed from the ministry in May, two months after the archdiocese received a letter from a woman claiming her brother had been raped by the cleric in the early 1960s. That priest's attorney called the allegations unsupported and unreliable.
However, Rev. William Scanlan's personnel file contained a 1987 warning from a church official that he "fools around with kids," but he was assigned to several parishes, then accused of raping a 12-year-old girl. He denied that attack, passed a polygraph, and his superiors were kept informed of the charge.