- St. LOUIS, Mo. (Reuters)
- Two Roman Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of St. Louis have been
removed from duty, religious authorities said on Sunday, as fallout from
a child molestation scandal roiled the church in the United States.
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- The dismissal of the two priests in the third-oldest
U.S. Catholic community was in line with new rules that toughen standards
on clergy accused of past child sexual abuse in response to a scandal in
Boston, a spokesman for the archdiocese said.
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- The move came as a new "zero tolerance" policy
for those accused in such cases was announced on Friday by Archbishop Justin
Rigali, head of the archdiocese of 555,000 Catholics, spokesman Steve Mamanella
told Reuters in a telephone interview.
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- The new policy follows a similar stance by Cardinal Bernard
Law of Boston in that archdiocese in January following criminal proceedings
against a former priest there who was alleged to have molested at least
130 children over the past 30 years.
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- Archdiocese officials in St. Louis said the two priests,
Rev. Michael Campbell and Rev. Joseph Ross, had resigned their posts as
pastors. But a decision on whether they would be reassigned to other work
had not yet been made.
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- Mamanella said both priests, who were subject to allegations
of sexual abuse of minors in the 1980's, had later been allowed to work
as family pastors after counseling and treatment had deemed that they were
no risk to children.
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- An archdiocese committee set up in 1996 oversees such
cases and individuals, he said.
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- "In light of what happened in Boston and other events,
it was determined that now no priest who had had substantiated allegations
of sexual abuse of a minor may serve in a pastoral ministry, or a ministry
with children," Mamanella said.
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- Sunday's edition of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said
at least three other priests who had been accused in civil court of sexual
abuse remain active in the archdiocese, two in contact with children.
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- But Mamanella said that the archdiocese decided those
cases were not subject to action under the new rules.
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- An article in Sunday's New York Times also said that
two St. Louis brothers had received $20,000 each from the St. Louis archdiocese
four years ago as a settlement in a sexual abuse complaint against one
of the archdiocese's priests.
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- Mamanella declined to comment, saying: "We have
not been offering comment on matters relating to past cases, only to the
new rules."
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- The Boston case cast a spotlight on sexual misconduct
of priests that has built heavy pressure on Catholic leaders.
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- The priest in that case, John Geoghan, was suspended
in 1994 and defrocked in 1998 after the alleged molestations came to light.
He is now serving a prison sentence for molesting a 10-year-old boy and
faces at least two more criminal trials and dozens of additional lawsuits.
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- In Allentown, Pennsylvania last week, four priests were
dismissed from duty amid allegations of child sexual abuse. The Diocese
of Allentown, which serves an estimated 270,000 parishioners in eastern
Pennsylvania, said a review of active priests found four clerics who had
"engaged in sexual misconduct with minors" 20 to 30 years ago.
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- Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua offered a public
apology last week to 47 victims who have accused 35 priests of sexual misconduct
over the past 50 years. The Philadelphia Archdiocese has also announced
the dismissal of at least five priests accused of misconduct in response
to the Boston scandal.
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- In the neighboring Diocese of Camden, church officials
are battling a New Jersey Supreme Court case in which a former seminarian
claims he was forced to abandon his studies for the priesthood because
of the repeated sexual advances of priests.
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- There are 61 million Catholics in the United States,
making up about 23 percent of the U.S. population. The U.S. clergy includes
47,000 priests.
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