Diocese Continues to Promise Answers about Kiran

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Gallup Independent
January 17, 2015

http://gallupindependent.com/

GALLUP – Officials with the Diocese of Gallup are continuing to promise answers to questions about the Rev. Ravi Kiran’s sudden departure from St. Anthony Mission in October and Kiran’s financial management of the Zuni mission.

Diocesan officials had issued mixed messages in December. The Rev. Kevin Finnegan, the diocesan chancellor and vicar general who temporarily took over supervision of the Zuni parish, told parishioners that Kiran had been cleared of wrongdoing. However, in the days following Finnegan’s announcement, Susan Boswell, the diocese’s leading bankruptcy attorney, and Suzanne Hammons, the diocese’s media coordinator, said the investigation was ongoing.

In December, Hammons had said she expected the diocese to release a summary of the mission audit before the end of the month.

On Thursday, Hammons apologized for that deadline not being met.

“I’m kind of leery of giving you a date,” Hammons said, adding she had “no word as of yet” about the audit summary’s release but thought once again it would be soon.

Hammons said the delay was caused when diocesan officials decided to “take a deeper look” into the finances of the mission, which includes both a parish church and K8 school, in order to do a “thorough job” of the audit.

List of abusers

Hammons also clarified some statements she made in December after Bishop James S. Wall released an updated list of credibly accused sex abusers from the Gallup Diocese and posted the list on the diocesan website.

Diocesan officials have said its investigation into other alleged abusers is ongoing, but they have not explained why the names of four former Gallup priests were not included on the recent list. All four have been confirmed as credibly accused abusers by other Catholic dioceses or religious orders.

“Just because they aren’t on the list now doesn’t mean they won’t be,” Hammons said, adding, “Sometimes it takes a while to dig through the files.”

Hammons had made statements in December that the Gallup Diocese would not post photographs of the credibly accused abusers on the diocesan website, or include information about their current whereabouts – information that some Catholic dioceses do post online.

Backing away from that statement a bit, Hammons said although the diocese doesn’t plan to add that information to the website list now, it doesn’t mean it won’t add the information in the future.

Hammons was also asked if the diocese had informed law enforcement agencies about the current whereabouts of the credibly accused abusers who are still living. At least 10 of the 31 credibly accused abusers on the Diocese of Gallup’s list are known to be still alive.

Hammons said she did not know the answer to that and admitted there was further work to do regarding the list of abusers.

“There’s a lot of different strings to follow,” she said.