Secrets, Sins and Silence Timeline St. Louis Post-Dispatch November 16, 2004 Secrets, Sins and Silence • Part 1: The Untold Story of Sexual Abuse at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, by Phillip O'Connor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 13, 2004 • Part 2: Coming to Terms, Confronting the Church, by Phillip O'Connor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 15, 2004        • Dad Is Haunted by Family Friend's Abuse of Son, by Phillip O'Connor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 15, 2004 • Part 3: As Scandal Breaks, Search for Truth Begins, by Phillip O'Connor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 16, 2004        • Five Dioceses Agreed to Help One Sexual Abuse Victim, by Tim Townshend, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 16, 2004 • Timeline, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 16, 2004 • Sins and Silence: Problem Priests, Editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 17, 2004 [See also Will public debriding bring private healing of the wounds at St. Thomas Aquinas? by Bishop John R. Gaydos, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 22, 2004.] 1956 The Jefferson City Diocese is established across 38 counties of Missouri, consisting mostly of small, rural parishes.     1957 The diocese opens St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal to help it groom high schoolers for the priesthood to serve its parishes.     1963 Anthony J. O'Connell, who had emigrated to St. Louis from Ireland to attend college seminary, is ordained and assigned to the St. Thomas faculty.     1969 Michael McAuliffe, who since 1945 had served in a number of positions in the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, including superintendent of schools, is installed as the second Jefferson City bishop. He replaces Bishop Joseph M. Marling.     1970 Manus Daly, a priest who served in several Jefferson City Diocese parishes, joins the St. Thomas faculty.     1982 St. Thomas graduate James P. McNally, who had become a priest, joins the St. Thomas faculty.     1988 O'Connell is appointed bishop of Knoxville, Tenn.     1997 John R. Gaydos, vicar general of the St. Louis Archdiocese, is installed as the third bishop of the Jefferson City Diocese, replacing McAuliffe, who resigned after 28 years as bishop.     1999 O'Connell is appointed bishop of Palm Beach, Fla., to help bring stability to the diocese after a sex scandal.     March 2002 O'Connell resigns as bishop after public revelation of a confidential settlement with a former Missouri priest who said O'Connell sexually abused him when he was a seminarian at St. Thomas.     May 2002 The Jefferson City Diocese closes St. Thomas, citing dwindling enrollment, strained finances and the negative publicity from the O'Connell scandal.     August 2004 The St. Thomas property is sold to a Hannibal church for $243,000.

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