August 05, 2005

Priest called actions "the will of God," godson says

COLORADO
Denver Post

By Eric Gorski
Denver Post Staff Writer

Harold Robert White invited many Catholic boys to his family's cabin in Grand Lake over the years. Delbert C. "Skip" Nielsen III was among the chosen ones.

Nielsen was no ordinary parishioner, either. He was White's godson.

He went alone with White to the mountains and no one gave a thought to it. He was 10 or 11.

On that night in the mid-1960s, Nielsen said, his godfather the Roman Catholic priest crawled into bed with him.

"He groped me, fondled me, told me it was the will of God," Skip Nielsen told The Denver Post this week. "He said that he was one of God's disciples, that it was OK, that it was normal."

White did not respond Thursday to messages seeking comment. He has previously refused to answer questions about allegations of child sexual abuse against him.

Posted by kshaw at August 5, 2005 07:33 AM