MIAMI (FL)
Detroit Free Press
June 2, 2005, 7:32 AM
MIAMI (AP) -- A U.S. Navy chaplain who was suspended by Detroit Catholic leaders on accusations of child sexual abuse but later won reinstatement to the active priesthood through an appeal to the Vatican has begun work at a Florida hospital.
The Rev. Brian Bjorklund began work Tuesday at the Miami Veteran Affairs Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Susan Ward said.
Bjorklund was suspended by the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2003 over abuse that allegedly took place in the mid-1970s. Bjorklund was working as a Navy chaplain in California at the time of his suspension.
In February 2004, the Vatican overruled the zero-tolerance policy adopted by U.S. bishops and reinstated Bjorklund to the ministry. It said the accusation against him -- having sex with a 16-year-old boy in the 1970s -- did not violate church law at the time.
Posted by kshaw at June 2, 2005 07:23 AM