Church revoked and sent Father Vincent Cao Dang Minh of Oregon to Psychological Treatment Center due to Allegations of Sex Abuses
Julie
Archdiocese - Abuse accusations in bankruptcy documents involve
religious order clergy, seminarians, nuns and others in addition to
priests
Sunday, November 12, 2006
ASHBEL S. GREEN and STEVE WOODWARD
The Oregonian
Far more people in Oregon say they were abused by priests, clergy and
other Catholic workers in the past 70 years than has been publicly
known, a review of the Portland Archdiocese bankruptcy files shows.
The archdiocese's decision to seek bankruptcy protection in 2004 gave
it some control over a flood of priest abuse litigation. But the move
also revealed allegations that have remained secret for decades. In
some cases, documents and letters that the archdiocese possessed have
been entered into the file. In other cases, people are making sex-
abuse allegations for the first time.
Bankruptcy records show that people filed 368 legal claims of abuse
and that 46 other reports of abuse were made informally. To date, more
than 50 claims have been dismissed or withdrawn. Accusations have been
made against 133 priests, religious order clergy, nuns, seminarians
and other lay Catholic workers or volunteers.
In 2004, Archbishop John G. Vlazny said the archdiocese had counted 37
accused priests and 181 accusers between 1950 and 2003.
Archdiocese spokesman Bud Bunce said there are several reasons for the
discrepancy. Many of the accusations came as a result of the
bankruptcy and well after Vlazny announced his calculations, Bunce
said. Several others were the responsibility of Catholic organizations
other than the archdiocese, such as a teacher at Jesuit High School,
he said.
"Many of these persons are wrongly alleged to be archdiocesan agents,"
Bunce said in a written response to questions.
Regardless of religious order, the magnitude of the alleged abuse
surprised a longtime critic of the archdiocese.
"I never would have thought it was that high for Oregon," said Bill
Crane, director of the Oregon Survivors Network of those Abused by
Priests. "Now here we are in bankruptcy, still peeling away the layers
of this onion. And that's a pretty big onion."
Bankruptcy documents also show how far the archdiocese has come in
child-abuse reporting since the Rev. Thomas Laughlin's 1983 conviction
for sexually abusing two altar boys. The documents show, however, that
complete transparency is not the rule.
Laughlin-era documents indicate that church officials ignored internal
whistle-blowers and seemed to place a higher premium on containing
scandal than confronting priests.
Since then, church officials have far more aggressively investigated
complaints of sexual abuse. There is no known case of the archdiocese
ignoring a sex abuse accusation since Laughlin's arrest. And a recent
audit found that the archdiocese had complied with the policy on the
books since 2002 that any priest accused of sexually abusing a child
must be immediately removed from public ministry.
Transparency is another matter.
Although the archdiocese publicly responds to charges in lawsuits,
some accusations are still handled quietly, bankruptcy files show.
The Rev. Vincent Minh, the spiritual leader for many Southeast Asian
Catholics in Oregon, departed in 2001 under what was described at the
time as routine circumstances.
Undisclosed was the fact that prosecutors considered sex-abuse
accusations against him credible, but chose not to pursue charges
because too much time had passed since the assaults in the 1980s.
And as extensive as the bankruptcy records are, they only hint at the
complete record on child sex abuse within the Catholic Church in
Oregon.
Nationwide study
Two years ago, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice released an
exhaustive study on priest abuse. It was commissioned by the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and dioceses and religious
orders were expected to open their files on priest abuse accusations
and settlements.
The study discussed only national numbers, but Portland and some
dioceses decided to release their figures. In addition to the 37
accused priests, Vlazny said the archdiocese and its insurers had
spent $53 million settling the cases.
Bankruptcy documents describe those settlements in detail that was
previously unknown. For instance, the archdiocese and its insurers
paid nearly $30 million to settle claims against the Rev. Maurice
Grammond, Portland's most-accused priest.
Crane said the additional information in the bankruptcy files
supported his claims that the archdiocese has not been completely
candid about past abuse.
"Once again, there's a continual pattern that takes place that they
always minimize," Crane said. "Now we're finally getting more
information."
Bunce said the archdiocese has been as candid as possible.
"We have tried to be open about the number of claims and number of
those accused," Bunce said. "We published numbers very publicly in the
past. Since entering the bankruptcy process this has been more
difficult for a multitude of reasons."
How cases were handled
The bankruptcy documents reveal more details about how accused priests
were handled and how the archdiocese has changed its approach to child
abuse allegations.
In fits and starts, records show, the archdiocese progressed from a
culture in which some priests abused children with few consequences to
one in which any priest accused of abusing a minor is reported to
authorities and removed from ministry.
The Laughlin case demonstrates how poorly priest accusations used to
be handled.
In a 1986 deposition filed in the bankruptcy, Laughlin described
meetings with Archbishop Robert J. Dwyer and his successor, Archbishop
Cornelius M. Power. He said that both men, now dead, knew he had
abused boys, but never forced him into treatment or restricted his
access to children.
He recalled being summoned to Dwyer's office in 1970 after someone
reported him for abusing a boy when he was a pastor in Corvallis.
"He expressed terrible concern for the boy involved," Laughlin said,
"reprimanded me severely, actually cried because of what I had done to
the boy, the church, myself, and said, 'You've got to stop this
completely right here and now,' and asked me specifically, 'Do you
think you need professional help?'
"And I said, 'No.' "
About two years later, Dwyer confronted Laughlin a second time on
similar accusations.
"It was similar to the first, but far more serious," Laughlin said in
recalling the meeting. "And he said, 'I will have to move you now.' "
Dwyer transferred Laughlin to pastor of All Saints Parish in Portland.
In another example found in the bankruptcy file, a former president of
the University of Portland, the Rev. Theodore J. Mehling,moved at
least one abusive priest.
In a 1958 letter to the Rev. Archibald M. McDowell, who has faced two
claims in Oregon, Mehling discussed his heartbreak over reports that
the priest fondled two high school boys.
"When, for God's sake, are you going to learn to keep your hands to
yourself?" wrote Mehling, who by then had moved to Indiana.
"We can move you, but where I don't know, at the Easter vacation,"
wrote Mehling, who noted that McDowell already had two canonical
warnings about his conduct and could face expulsion for a third.
"Change of place seems futile. Perhaps we can find an institution
where you can get psychiatric treatment."
Psychological evaluation is now routine for accused pedophiles and
ephebophiles, the term for adults who are sexually attracted to
adolescents.
Laughlin forced a change in the rules. After the priest's 1983 arrest,
the archdiocese adopted new rules about when and how to investigate
sex-abuse claims.
The rules were tougher, but not as strong as the landmark policy
adopted by Catholic bishops nationwide in 2002.
During his 1986-95 tenure, former Archbishop William J. Levada removed
at least four priests and sent at least two into treatment, bankruptcy
records show.
But in a move that would not be allowed today, at least two accused
priests later returned to churches, records show.
And under those rules, parishioners were largely left in the dark when
priests were removed because of an accusation, the Rev. Charles
Lienert said in a deposition.
Levada publicly discussed the removal of the Rev. John Goodrich from
St. John Fisher Church in Southwest Portland after he was accused of
molesting a boy starting in 1974. But under a later archbishop,
members of Assumption Catholic Church, Lienert said, weren't informed
in 1996 that their new pastor, the Rev. Joseph Baccellieri, was an
accused child molester for whom the archdiocese had paid out $575,000
in settlements to three claimants.
"I don't know why the bishop made that decision," Lienert said.
The archdiocese heard allegations against Baccellieri in 1992. Levada
removed him and sent him through two years of therapy. After
consulting with therapists, Levada returned him to ministry in 1994
under close supervision. The archdiocese received no reports of sexual
misconduct for the rest of his career.
Available records reflect that the former archbishop exercised great
care before returning an accused priest to a ministry assignment, said
Jeffrey Lena, an attorney who represented Levada at a bankruptcy
deposition last year.
"The decision was not arbitrary," Lena said. "It was taken seriously,
and it was taken in consultation with professionals and under strict
guidelines. It's not for no reason that when Levada handled such
matters there was no reported re-offense in the Portland Archdiocese
when it was under his stewardship."
Sent away for treatment
Minh had led the 5,000-member Southeast Asian Vicariate for 20 years
when law enforcement learned about sexual abuse accusations against
him in March 2001.
A Portland child-abuse detective interviewed the accusers. Charles H.
Sparks, a deputy Multnomah County prosecutor, later described their
stories as "credible and consistent" in an internal August 2001 report
filed in the bankruptcy.
Sparks wrote that "efforts were made during this investigation to
interview the suspect and he refused." But the abuse allegedly
occurred in the 1980s, and Sparks declined to prosecute Minh because
too much time had passed since the assaults.
The report says that Minh's order, the Congregation of the Most Holy
Redeemer, also known as the Redemptorists, moved him to a "treatment
facility" in Toronto. Court records identify it as the Southdown
Institute, a nonprofit that specializes in the treatment of clergy.
Kristine Stremel, public and community affairs director for the
Redemptorists, said officials immediately removed Minh when the
allegations came to light.
Stremel, who did not work for the Redemptorists at the time, said she
did not know why officials did not publicize the accusations.
"I can only speculate that it was not discussed to protect the privacy
of anyone involved in the case -- that means Father Minh and anyone
who would have been accusing him," she said.
Stremel added that the current leader of the Redemptorists, who did
not handle Minh's removal in 2001, informs congregations when priests
are removed because of sex abuse allegations.
Minh could not be reached to comment on the allegations. He is now
assigned to a Redemptorist center in Illinois, Stremel said. His
public priestly functions have been revoked.
Bunce defended Vlazny's decision not to publicly discuss the
allegations against the priest.
"When Minh left there was an ongoing investigation by civil
authorities," Bunce said. "After conclusion of the investigation and
conversation with persons in the Vietnamese Vicariate, it was
determined that initiating a public discussion of the Minh matter
would go counter to the cultural sensitivities of a Vietnamese
community. Archbishop Vlazny respected that sensitivity."
Ashbel "Tony" Green: 503-221-8202; tony...@news.oregonian.com
Steve Woodward: 503-294-5134; stevew...@news.oregonian.com
©2006 The Oregonian