WASHINGTON
The Spokesman-Review
Virginia de Leon
Staff writer
April 19, 2006
A Jesuit priest now working in the Diocese of Yakima was removed from ministry last week after a sexual abuse claim against him surfaced in the Spokane Diocese's bankruptcy case.
The Rev. John J. Morse denied the accusations in a letter he wrote to parishioners of Our Lady of Fatima in Moses Lake, but his Jesuit superiors still asked him to step down as they await the findings of an independent investigation.
The abuse allegedly occurred 35 to 40 years ago at Omak's St. Joseph Catholic Church, one of 82 parishes that constitute the Diocese of Spokane.