GUAM Priest Reinstated after Investigation Clears Him

U-T San Diego
April 14, 2015

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/apr/14/guam-priest-reinstated-after-investigation-clears/

A Roman Catholic priest has been reinstated after a church investigation cleared him of allegations he molested two boys while serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in the 1970s.

[hdiocese of Agana said Tuesday that the Rev. John Howard Wadeson has been fully reinstated to public ministry, the Pacific Daily News (http:]

Wadeson was stripped of his duties and left Guam last July amid community concerns about his past. He said he was falsely accused but left because he didn't want the accusations to tarnish Guam's archbishop.

A 2004 clergy-abuse report by the Los Angeles archdiocese lists Wadeson as being credibly accused of molesting two people between 1973 and 1977, while he was working as a priest with the Divine Word Missionaries religious order. Wadeson was in the Los Angeles archdiocese between 1972 and 1985 and spent many of those years at Verbum Dei High School, an all-boys Catholic school.

The Los Angeles archdiocese reexamined the matter last year at Wadeson's request. After reviewing documents, it found there was no reason to preclude Wadeson from serving as a priest.

"For this reason Father John Wadeson remains, to the knowledge of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a priest in good standing," a statement from the Los Angeles archdiocese said.