January 15, 2006

Priest's death time for forgiveness

WISCONSIN
Stevens Point Journal

When Bishop Jerome E. Listecki of the Diocese of La Crosse recently celebrated the funeral Mass for a priest involved in the sexual abuse of a child, some eyebrows were raised.

Raymond Bornbach died on Tuesday last week in Marshfield and his funeral was Friday in Rozellville. The funeral wasn't publicly announced until after it had begun at St. Andrew Catholic Church. His family didn't want a disruption at the ceremony.

That could've happened. Some people were hurting.

An advisory board that reviews sexual abuse allegations in the diocese said in 2004 that a Plover woman's contention that she had been a victim of sexual abuse by Bornbach in 1971, when she was 9 years old, had been "sufficiently confirmed."

Bornbach was removed permanently from the ministry, and he was forbidden to wear clerical garb, present himself publicly as a priest or celebrate Mass in public.

Posted by kshaw at January 15, 2006 11:22 AM