DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register
By JARED STRONG
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
January 18, 2006
Advocates for sex-abuse survivors held a news conference this morning in downtown Des Moines in support of a lawsuit filed Tuesday that named a deceased Des Moines Catholic priest.
A former altar boy at Holy Family Parish in Lacona now living in Alaska filed the suit Tuesday, alleging he was abused by the Rev. Albert Wilwerding, who died in Sept. 2004.
Wilwerding was one of three priests that Des Moines Bishop Joseph Charron recommended for defrocking because of credible sex abuse allegations, but Wilwerding died before the Vatican could act on that request.
Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said there have been far too few cases of sexual misconduct reported by the Des Moines Diocese, which comprises 31 parishes in central and southwest Iowa.