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	Priest's Name Removed from Scholarship Kennebec Journal June 13, 2008 http://news.mainetoday.com/updates/028846.html AUGUSTA — The University of Maine at Augusta has changed the name of a scholarship it has offered in honor of the Rev. John J. Curran. The change follows a push by advocates for victims of sexual abuse by priests to remove the late priest's name from scholarship awards offered by UMA and the Calumet Educational and Literary Foundation. UMA will continue to offer the scholarship award and is now calling it the Leadership and Service Scholarship. The scholarship's name has already been changed on the university's Web site. "We think this is a good resolution and outcome," UMA President Allyson Hughes Handley said. Curran, who died in 1976, served as priest of St. Augustine Church in Augusta from 1962 to 1972. Since his death, at least two people have claimed that Curran sexually abused them when they were children. One of those cases has been corroborated. Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland officials have said they would bar Curran from ministering if he were alive today and would request that the Vatican remove him from the priesthood. "I think that UMA's swift and decisive action here sends a strong message to the community that the sexual abuse of children and young people cannot and will not be tolerated," said Paul Kendrick, an advocate for sexual abuse victims.
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