Advocate Criticizes Handling of Priest's Removal

By Bill Grimes
Effingham Daily News
May 4, 2015

http://www.effinghamdailynews.com/news/local_news/advocate-criticizes-handling-of-priest-s-removal/article_c493766f-d671-5475-b384-dd30fdaba6e9.html

A nationally known advocate for victims of clerical sex abuse said it's not surprising that Catholics in parishes served by the Rev. Robert "Bud" DeGrand have offered almost universal support to the embattled priest, who was permanently removed from his pastoral duties over the weekend.

"They almost always are beloved by their congregations," said David Clohessy, national director for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, based in St. Louis.

DeGrand served as the pastor of parishes in Sigel, Neoga, Green Creek and Lillyville since 1999. He had been on administrative leave while church leaders reviewed allegations of sexual abuse from the early 1980s, while DeGrand was serving a parish in Jacksonville.

DeGrand has never been charged with a crime. Messages seeking comment, conveyed to DeGrand through a former church trustee in Sigel, were not returned.

Clohessy said Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Springfield Diocese did not go far enough by just removing DeGrand from public ministry on Saturday.

"They do the absolute minimum and don't do it well," Clohessy said.

"I would argue that the bishop had no choice," he added, referring to DeGrand's removal. "He has lawyers and PR people telling him this was something he had to do. On top of that, he had a priest who was brazenly thumbing his nose at him."

DeGrand defied Paprocki's order to leave Sigel while the case was being investigated, according to the dicocese. In fact, parishioners at St. Michael the Archangel church in Sigel recently bought and furnished a home for DeGrand.

Clohessy said Paprocki needs to take a number of additional steps in the DeGrand case, including:

Stop using diocesan funds for DeGrand's legal fees.

• Put notices about the allegations against DeGrand on the diocesan website and every church bulletin within the diocese.

Clohessy added that Paprocki should visit every parish where DeGrand has worked in an effort to seek out other potential victims and encourage them to call the police if they think anything inappropriate occurred. He added that would mitigate the harm he believes the bishop caused in his handling of the case.

"He needs to forge a new path," the advocate said.

"He kept the allegations hidden for weeks, giving Father DeGrand plenty of time to destroy evidence, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, fabricate alibis and even flee the country," Clohessy said.

Paprocki, through a diocesan spokeswoman, declined comment Monday.

"The bishop believes our press release is a sufficient answer to SNAP," said diocesan spokeswoman Marlene Mulford.

A text of the news release announcing DeGrand's removal is on the Effingham Daily News' website at www.effinghamdailynews.com.

Bill Grimes can be reached at 217-347-7151, ext. 132, at bill.grimes@effinghamdailynews.com , or on Twitter @EDNBGrimes.