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	Maine Bishop Responds to Revelations about Abuse Warnings MPBN March 31, 2009 http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineHeadlineNews/tabid/968/ctl/ViewItem/mid/2905/ItemId/9920/Default.aspx Maine's Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Malone is praising as "a prophet" the founder of a religious order who warned in the 1950's that pedophile priests were incorrigable and should not be returned to the ministry. Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald, founder of a program to rehabilitate sexually abusive priests, expressed that view in letters he wrote regularly to U.S. bishops and Vatican officials, according to the National Catholic Reporter. The letters, obtained from plaintiffs' lawyers, appear to challenge assertions by some church officials that they were not aware that moving abusive priests from parish to parish posed a risk to children. "From the report, it seems Fr. Fitzgerald was a prophet who early on saw the profound harm sexual abuse has on victims and the Church, as well as the need for uniform policies and penalties like those in place today," Malone says in a statement. "Sadly, his convictions were not readily accepted by the mainstream." Malone says the letters reinforce current church policy that requires abusive priests to be permanently removed from the ministry. The rehabilitation center Fitzgerald founded was shut down in the mid-1990's.
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