TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
The leader of a local victims' advocacy group is urging Bishop Leonard Blair of the Toledo Catholic Diocese to ask for the resignations of Auxiliary Bishop Robert Donnelly and the Rev. Michael Billian, episcopal vicar, for allegedly concealing crimes of child sexual abuse by priests.
"We believe that you will never be viewed as an agent of healing and change while you are surrounded by the very same leadership who actively participated in the concealing of these crimes from the court system," Claudia Vercellotti said in a letter to Bishop Blair.
She also asked Bishop Blair to end the diocese's business relationship with the law firm of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick.
Ms. Vercellotti, local co-coordinator of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said she faxed the letter to the Catholic Center yesterday, but as of 6:30 last night, it had not arrived at Bishop Blair's office, according to Sally Oberski, director of communications for the diocese.
"The bishop cannot respond to a letter that he has not read yet," Ms. Oberski said.
The SNAP letter was sent four days after The Blade published an article detailing cases dating back 50 years in which the diocese worked with law-enforcement officials to conceal sex-abuse crimes by priests.