MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press
February 19, 2005
BY DAVID CRUMM
FREE PRESS RELIGION WRITER
Catholic dioceses in Michigan have taken steps required by the U.S. Catholic prelates to safeguard children from sexual abuse by church workers, the church's national Office of Child and Youth Protection said Friday.
Gaylord Bishop Patrick Cooney was singled out in the report with praise for his diocese's extensive partnership with local and state law enforcement agencies, who have worked with churches in northern Michigan on background checks of staff members and training courses for church workers on establishing safe environments for children.
Last year, the Archdiocese of Detroit removed five priests from ministry because of accusations of abuse.
They were: in January, the Rev. Thomas Physician, who died in August; in February, the Rev. C. Richard Kelly; in July, the Rev. Luis Javier de Alba Campos, who was found not guilty of criminal conduct in Wayne County Circuit Court last month, and, in August, the Rev. Timothy Murray and the Rev. Michael Malawy. Kelly, de Alba Campos, Murray and Malawy remain on leave.