August 04, 2005

Victims' group calls on diocese to explain cover-up with police

TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

By JOE MAHR
BLADE STAFF WRITER

After revelations the Catholic diocese worked with law enforcement to conceal sex-abuse cases for 50 years, a priest and a local victims' advocacy group are demanding church leaders answer questions about the diocese's role in the cover-up.

The local chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests plans to deliver a letter to church headquarters today, calling on Bishop Leonard Blair and others to explain, in a public forum, how the diocese handled the sexual-abuse crisis.

"We think he owes us - all of us - nothing less than the full, unabridged truth, from start to finish, and we haven't gotten that," said Claudia Vercellotti, co-leader of the Toledo SNAP chapter.

The Rev. Stephen Stanbery, a past critic of the diocese's handling of the sex-abuse crisis, singled out Auxiliary Bishop Robert Donnelly and the Rev. Michael Billian, the Episcopal Vicar for Administration, for their handling of the case of former priest Dennis Gray, accused by a dozen boys of raping and abusing them in the 1980s.

"If they're not prepared to submit to questions, they should resign," said Father Stanbery, who called previously for the pair's resignation after revelations of what the diocese knew about the Gray case.

Posted by kshaw at August 4, 2005 10:39 AM