BishopAccountability.org
	An Appeal to Compassion News-Democrat September 27, 2008 http://www.bnd.com/editorial/story/484628.html Edward Braxton, bishop of the Belleville Catholic Diocese, offers 5 million reasons why the diocese plans to appeal the recent verdict in a civil sexual abuse case. And certainly, paying the $5 million judgment would strain diocesan finances. But here are three reasons why we think an appeal will cost Catholics even more spiritually and emotionally: • It is clear that James Wisniewski was sexually abused as a child in the early 1970s by the Rev. Raymond Kownacki. There was no testimony at the trial to even try to refute that. • It is clear that diocesan leaders knew Kownacki had abused children yet did nothing to stop him. They didn't call the police, they didn't remove him from contact with children, they didn't even tell Kownacki to stop. They just moved him to other unsuspecting parishes. In the 1990s, they concealed some of the records from then Bishop Wilton Gregory that showed the extent of Kownacki's actions. • It is clear that the diocese was in the wrong. Even Gregory, testifying on behalf of the diocese, stated that if the evidence was correct, the diocese was responsible for what happened to Wisniewski. If the diocese wins its appeal, it would do so not because the facts are in its favor, but because it successfully exploited some legal loophole. Braxton, in a letter to parishioners explaining his decision, asks that everyone "move through these difficult days holding fast to the Gospel of Jesus Christ." One way for the diocese to hold fast to the gospel is to do the right thing for Wisniewski and his family.
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