More Transparency on Abusive Priests Asked of Springfield Bishop

By Chris Dettro
State Journal-Register
March 4, 2015

http://www.sj-r.com/article/20150304/News/150309764

A national support group for clergy abuse victims on Wednesday called for more transparency from the Catholic Diocese of Springfield concerning two out-of-state "predator priests" who spent time in the diocese.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, also wants an explanation as to why six priests ousted from their Chicago parishes in the 1990s appeared in an official Catholic directory for the Springfield Diocese, all with the same Litchfield phone number.

The group says it isn't sure those six priests ever were assigned to or spent time in the Springfield Diocese, but it suspects that one or more did.

The two out-of-state priests are the Rev. Frank R. Martinez Jr. of Iowa and the Rev. James Vincent Fitzgerald of South Dakota, said David Clohessy, director of Chicago-based SNAP.

"Neither Bishop Thomas Paprocki (leader of the 28-county Springfield Diocese) nor his predecessors have told anyone about them," Clohessy said.

Martinez was deemed "credibly accused" of child sex abuse by diocesan officials in Davenport, Iowa, in 2008. He later was sent to St. Mary's Hospital in Decatur, Clohessy said.

Fitzgerald was sued in 2013 for allegedly assaulting a child in Minnesota and in 2010 for molesting two other children in South Dakota. He worked at St. Joseph Novitiate in Godfrey and from 1994 to 2002 lived at a church facility in Belleville.

Both Martinez and Fitzgerald are believed to have died.

"We are urging Bishop Paprocki to be more forthcoming and honest about predator priests, specifically Fitzgerald and Martinez," Clohessy said. "We want him to use his vast resources to search the diocese and post the names of any predator priests who spent time in the Springfield Diocese. We feel that's the absolute minimum any bishop should do."

Springfield Diocese spokeswoman Marlene Mulford said in a written statement that it is the responsibility of other dioceses to disclose wrongdoing by either Martinez or Fitzgerald.

"Neither of the two priests, Father Fitzgerald nor Father Martinez, were our diocesan priests," she said. "One was from a religious order; the other was from the Diocese of Davenport. It is their community's responsibility."

Fitzgerald was a member of a Washington-based religious order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Clohessy said the names of the six suspended Chicago priests were learned through court documents.

"In one year in the early 1990s, they all had a phone number that traced to a landline in Litchfield," he said. "That's odd at best and worrisome at worst."

He said SNAP didn't know for sure if any of the six spent time in the Springfield Diocese.

"But historically, bishops have sent predator priests to unsuspecting parishes," he said. "There could be an innocent explanation. But if they spent even a few days here, the bishop should reveal that and post their names on his website."

Mulford said the six Chicago priests "were not our diocesan priests."

"To our knowledge, they were not assigned in this diocese," she said.

SNAP named the priests as the Revs. David F. Braun, Eugene P. Burns, William J. Cloutier, Norbert J. Maday, Robert E. Mayer and Kenneth C. Runge.

The group believes that Maday and Mayer are still alive. The others are believed to be deceased.

Clohessy spoke at a sidewalk news conference held across the street from the Catholic Pastoral Center, 1615 W. Washington St. in Springfield. He was accompanied by John Freml, spokesman for the central Illinois chapter of Call to Action, a group working for justice and equality in the Catholic church, and by Joe Iacona, who was abused as a boy by a priest in Chicago.

Freml said Paprocki "has done a lot of good" in the diocese, citing the legal defense fund the bishop established to help the poor.

Although Parocki wasn't the Springfield Diocese bishop in the 1990s, "he's here now and it's his job and his moral responsibility" to reveal information about the priests, Freml said. "We want to know who knew what and when they knew it. We would like him to come clean if there are any more priests we don't know about yet."

SNAP on numerous occasions previously has called on Paprocki to post the names of priests accused of sexual abuse on the diocese website. Citing bishopaccountability.org, Clohessy said that 30 dioceses nationwide do post the names of predator priests.

"What's the downside for him (Paprocki) to post these names?" Iacona said.

— Contact Chris Dettro: chris.dettro@sj-r.com, 788-1510, twitter.com/ChrisDettroSJR.