Priest Suspended In D.C.

A Roman Catholic priest has been removed from his parish and placed on administrative leave after admitting he might have "stepped over the line" with at least one teen-age girl.

Monsignor Russell Dillard has already entered a residential treatment facility where he is undergoing evaluation. The District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department was informed after two women contacted the Archdiocese of Washington last week. The women claim Dillard engaged in sexual misconduct with them over a five-year period ending in 1984.

"He admitted that there was a physical relationship, he doesn't characterize it as sexual abuse," said Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, head of the 600,000 member archdiocese encompassing the District of Columbia and five southern Maryland counties.

"My heart and my prayers go out to the people who have come forward," said McCarrick, who followed guidelines initially established by the diocese in 1983 in suspending Dillard from his ministry and notifying civil authorities.

"I can think of almost nothing more painful than to learn a priest may have violated the trust placed in him in this way," said McCarrick.

Dillard told WUSA-TV he had a relationship with one girl and that there was kissing.

"I know that this young woman feels hurt, and that I have stepped, crossed over a line that, though it did not lead to anything that was untoward, anything sexual, anything like that, I have to take responsibility for that," Dillard said.

Dillard likened his relationship with the woman to that of "father-daughter."

Dillard, 54, has spent his entire career as a priest in Washington. The alleged misconduct occurred while he was associate pastor of Saint Anthony's Catholic Church in Northeast Washington. Since 1990 he has served as pastor of Saint Augustine Church in Northwest, a parish attended by some of the city's most affluent and influential residents.

D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams is a member of the parish and has many times consulted Dillard on social and religious issues affecting the city. Although the church was established to serve free blacks in 1858, Dillard's appointment as pastor in 1990 marked the first time it was headed by a black priest.

The revelations of Dillard's admitted sexual misconduct could effectively end his priesthood. He has been on administrative leave since Monday. In addition to the police investigation and the results of the evaluation being conducted at the therapeutic center, McCarrick said he would weigh the statements of the women making the allegations in his decisions about Dillard's future.

Although this is the first time McCarrick has had to remove a member of the clergy amid allegations of sexual misconduct since taking over the his current post 14 months ago, he has admitted taking similar steps "four or five times," during his career as a bishop.

In light of recent revelations involving Catholic clergy across the country, McCarrick urged others who feel they have been victimized to come forward.

"We want to make sure that we're taking care of these people," McCarrick said.