JOLIET (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Crystal Yednak, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter David Heinzmann contributed to this report
Published February 4, 2006
Joliet Bishop Joseph Imesch said a priest he worked with in Michigan had confided that he sexually abused an altar boy there, but Imesch felt no obligation to tell authorities who were investigating the incident, according to a 2005 deposition.
In the deposition, which was unsealed this week, Imesch adds new details to the record of how he and the Catholic Diocese of Joliet handled several priests accused of abuse.
The Michigan priest, Rev. Gary Berthiaume, admitted the abuse to Imesch after he was arrested but before he was convicted of molesting the boy, according to the deposition. Berthiaume was sentenced to 6 months in prison in 1978.