INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
South Bend Tribune
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- An archdiocesan review board cleared a priest and a former priest of sexual molestation claims made by a former altar boy.
The Rev. Carlton J. Beever, 57, was reinstated at his Indianapolis parish after 18 months on unpaid leave. He presided over Masses on Sunday at St. Philip Neri church. A Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis official told his congregation that Beever was innocent of allegations the review board did not find credible.
Beever and Thomas J. Amsden, 64, a former priest who resigned from the ministry in 1995, have maintained their innocence since a man sued them in July 2004, claiming both had abused him while he was an altar boy at a Greensburg parish in the 1970s. No criminal charges were filed.
"I've known from the beginning of our innocence," said Amsden, who resigned as pastor of St. Mary to get married and start a family. "I've known that, and I've lived with it for three years. It has been extremely heartbreaking. It has been the absolutely worst thing that I have ever gone through."