MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press
August 9, 2005
BY DAVID CRUMM and PATRICIA MONTEMURRI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Wayne County prosecutors began investigating Monday how a former Detroit Catholic priest, convicted in 2003 of sexually abusing a minor in the 1980s, wound up celebrating mass recently for a gay-rights group in Virginia.
Prosecutors are concerned that Harry Benjamin might have come into unsupervised contact with minors, a potential violation of the terms of his probation in Michigan.
Benjamin's return to the altar, though not sanctioned by the Catholic Church, underscores the difficulty of monitoring hundreds of men accused of sexual misconduct and removed from the ministry, including more than 40 in Michigan since 2002.
Prosecutors and church officials say they didn't expect a defrocked priest to resurface celebrating mass for Dignity-USA, the leading Catholic gay-rights group that often operates outside church rules and, in Virginia, worships in an Episcopal church.
On Monday, Maria Miller, spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said, "We're investigating what he has been doing in terms of his activities with Dignity, whether he's been conducting masses and is in the presence of minors."