PITTSBURGH (PA)
Post-Gazette
Friday, September 23, 2005
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In 1985, over the objections of the priest who advised him on clergy appointments, former Pittsburgh bishop Anthony Bevilacqua accepted a convicted child molester from the diocese of Camden, N.J., and assigned him to Sewickley Valley Hospital.
The offending priest, the Rev. John P. Connor, was removed from his assignment here shortly after Bishop Donald Wuerl replaced Bevilacqua in 1988. Bevilacqua then gave Connor a parish assignment in the Philadelphia archdiocese.
The Connor case was detailed in a Philadelphia grand jury report of more than 400 pages released Wednesday. The report blasted Bevilacqua, the former Philadelphia archbishop, and others in the hierarchy for their response to complaints about priests who molested minors.
Wuerl was not responsible for transferring Connor to Philadelphia because Connor never formally belonged to the Pittsburgh diocese; only the bishop of Camden could reassign him, said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.