September 09, 2005

Priest may return to ministry

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Sentinel

By TOM HEINEN
theinen@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Sept. 8, 2005
Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan has given approval for Father Patrick O'Loughlin to return to active ministry as a priest in good standing. The decision comes slightly more than three years after the priest left his position as associate pastor of St. Gregory the Great Parish in Milwaukee and went on leave amid concerns about some of his relationships with adults.

O'Loughlin, 39, is now on the archdiocese's help-out list to assist with sacraments at parishes within the 10-county archdiocese, and the process of determining his next assignment will soon begin, Dolan reported Thursday in a monthly e-mail letter to priests, deacons and parish directors.

Details of the concerns were never released, though Dolan stressed again in his letter that "none of these concerns were in any way about any inappropriate conduct with minors. . . . Now, after these past three years, and with Father O'Loughlin's cooperation, the archdiocese finds no obstacle to his return to pastoral ministry."

O'Loughlin, the only diocesan priest ordained here in 1999, expressed relief and gratitude to archdiocesan officials, family, and friends in a statement Thursday.

"I am glad that my time of exile within the church has ended," O'Loughlin said. "I promised myself that this day would come, and it has. In an important way, this is just the beginning rather than the end."

Posted by kshaw at September 9, 2005 07:41 AM