Bishop Accountability

William E. Franklin
Davenport IA

Davenport is the only U.S. diocese besides Boston where a judge has ordered a major release of church files, and Bishop Franklin is fighting the order tooth and nail. A small but eloquent selection of those documents has been publicly filed, along with heartbreaking accounts by the victims about the abuse they suffered. We present all these documents below, together with detailed information on the bishops, managers, and priests of the Davenport diocese.

These materials are of national importance and interest. They are unique in offering multiple descriptions of the abuse and coverup: from victims, diocesan officials, and even the perpetrators themselves. Sadly, these documents demonstrate that the sexual abuse and coverup found in Boston and Los Angeles also occurred in America's heartland.

BishopAccountability.org has collected materials about the abuse crisis in the Davenport diocese, and organized them as follows:

Introduction and Issues

	•	Brief Introduction - A quick guide to representative documents and accounts with photographs.
	•	Settlements - Useful background information on selected settlements in the Boston archdiocese and elsewhere.
	•	Bankruptcy - News, commentary, and documents from around the country.
	•	Errors in Bishop Franklin's Report - Revealing study of the official 2/25/04 account of the Davenport abuse crisis.
	•	Affidavit by Rev. Thomas Doyle - Analysis of secrecy in the Catholic church and the Davenport diocese.
	•	Active Parish - Articles and documents about Sts. Philip and James in Grand Mound.

Accused Priests, Parishes, and Managers

	•	Parishes Where Offenders Worked - A map and a list by city and town of the parishes in the Davenport diocese where priests accused of sexual abuse or possession of child pornography have worked.
	•	Accused Priests - Illustrated assignment records of all accused priests whose names are known.
	•	All the Bishop's Men - Diocesan managers from 1950 to the present, with links to the letters and memos they exchanged about abuse cases.

Diocesan Documents, Victims' Accounts, and Media Coverage

	•	Bishops' Files and Victims' Accounts - All the diocesan documents and victims' affidavits arranged in chronological order.
	•	News and Views - Over 200 news articles and commentary on the Davenport crisis.
	•	Legal Documents - Selected plaintiffs' and defendant's filings.
	•	Timeline of Recent Events - A history of the revelations since December 2002, with links.

Note: The documents in these files are offered solely for educational purposes. Should any reader wish to quote or reproduce these documents for sale, the original publisher should be contacted and permission requested. BishopAccountability.org makes no claim regarding the accuracy of any document we post. If any original publisher objects to our maintaining a cache of their documents for safekeeping, we will gladly take down our cache of those documents and offer links to the original publisher's posted versions instead.

Please send suggestions for adding documents to staff@bishop-accountability.org.