February 25, 2005

Priest abuse reports persist

DENVER (CO)
Denver Post

By Eric Gorski
Denver Post Staff Writer

One of the new allegations of child sex abuse fielded by the Denver Roman Catholic Archdiocese last year was leveled against a religious order priest who was mentally ill and died in 1975, a representative of his community said Thursday.

The alleged incident took place in 1963 and involved a boy in his midteens, said the Rev. Anthony O'Connell, provincial of the Servite Fathers, a Chicago religious order that at one point had priests in four parishes in the Denver Archdiocese.

As part of an annual report card on reforms adopted in response to the clergy abuse scandal, the Denver Archdiocese announced last week it had received fresh allegations against eight priests in 2004, though some of the cases go back decades. Three involved diocesan priests, and five were members of religious orders that served in the 24-county archdiocese.

Posted by kshaw at February 25, 2005 07:11 AM