BishopAccountability.org
	Coughlin Worked with Chicago’s Fallen Priests By Paul Singer Roll Call November 20, 2008 http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_59/news/30325-1.html Before he became the minister for Members of Congress, the Rev. Daniel Coughlin ministered to a very different — and very troubled — flock. Beginning in 1990, Coughlin was the director for the Cardinal Stritch Retreat House in Mundelein, Ill. The Web site for the retreat house describes it “as a place of prayer and retreat,” and invites visitors to “come away to pray.” But it also has served since the early 1990s as a place where the Archdiocese of Chicago sends priests when they are removed from ministry because of allegations of sexual misconduct. Using public records searches, news archives and church assignment logs maintained by BishopAccountability.org, Roll Call was able to establish that at least 10 priests who were alleged abusers had Stritch mailing addresses or were otherwise assigned there during the 10 years Coughlin was directing the retreat or managing personnel matters at the archdiocese headquarters. The archdiocese has since declared that for all of these priests, “an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor has been substantiated.” Nine of the priests were named in lawsuits or settlements that the archdiocese struck with abuse victims after the sex abuse scandal erupted in 2002, when Coughlin was gone. Coughlin told Roll Call that the priests occupied a separate wing of the retreat center called Koenig Hall that had once been a convent for women working at the retreat. “When somebody had to be removed immediately from his assignment, they went to the retreat house” until the archdiocese decided what to do with them, Coughlin said. “All the investigations had been going on — by other people and not by me — and then it was decided that this man had to go either to alcohol treatment center or this person will probably never be going back to ministry but he needs to live according to a very strict protocol.” A spokeswoman for the archdiocese confirmed that, “As director of the Stritch Retreat House, Father Coughlin was responsible for the development and presentation of spiritual retreat programs for priests, deacons and others. He was not responsible for the management, supervision or ongoing monitoring of priests removed from ministry. He was aware of their presence at Koenig Hall and he cooperated with programs for their management.” In the spring of 1995, Coughlin left the Stritch retreat to become vicar for priests for the archdiocese, a job he shared with one other person. He once wrote that in this position, “I oversee the individual protocols established for priests who are withdrawn from ministry,” and he told Roll Call that he and his colleague “were referred to by the priests as ‘the clergy police.’” But he later clarified that his job was not to oversee the protocols, but to work with the priests who were living under those restrictions. Coughlin said the protocols for managing suspected sex offenders were developed by a board set up by the cardinal, often in consultation with civil authorities, and accused priests were not separated from the priesthood because it was believed the church could play a role in keeping them from committing additional offenses. While living under the protocols established by the archdiocese, a priest would receive treatment and pastoral care, and his interactions with other people could be closely monitored. But Coughlin said some priests chafed under these rules and decided to quit the priesthood. In those cases, “even though I would feel sometimes, ‘Well, this is probably best for the church,’ I became more anxious because we were trying to control this as much as we could,” Coughlin said. A priest’s departure “led me to great prayer for this man and his future and whoever he was meeting because now he wasn’t under our control at all.” One of Coughlin’s old charges remains in the news. Coughlin’s former boss, Cardinal Francis George — who recommended Coughlin for the House job — said in a deposition in January that Coughlin in the late 1990s was trying to win the release of the Rev. Norbert Maday, a priest imprisoned on child molestation charges in Wisconsin who the archdiocese has since concluded is a threat to children and should remain in custody indefinitely.
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