WASHINGTON
Bellingham Herald
BY CALEB HUTTON
chutton@bhamherald.com
The Archdiocese of Seattle released the names of 77 sex abusers who served as priests and religious leaders of the Catholic Church in Western Washington over the past century.
The church disclosed the names as part of the Archdiocese’s “longstanding efforts at transparency, accountability and urging victims to come forward,” according to a media release Friday, Jan. 15.
All of the listed priests and religious brothers and sisters have been linked to credible reports of child sex abuse between 1923 and 2008, according to the church. Five of the priests have ties to Whatcom County:
▪ Michael Cody, now deceased, worked at Sacred Heart Church in La Conner from 1970 to 1972, St. Charles Catholic Church in Burlington from 1972 to 1975, and the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham from 1972 to 1975. His sexual abuse of a Sedro-Woolley teenager was the subject of a lawsuit filed in Whatcom County Superior Court that was settled for $1.2 million in May 2015. Former Seattle Archbishop Thomas Connelly had been advised in 1962 that Father Cody was a diagnosed pedophile and had molested at least eight girls, according to internal records uncovered by the plaintiff’s attorneys. After a brief hiatus, Cody returned to work in leadership roles within the church. He abused the Sedro-Woolley girl in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
▪ Jerome Dooley, now deceased, was assigned to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Sedro-Woolley from 1970 to 1976 and Sacred Heart Church in Bellingham from 1976 to 1981.
▪ Dermot Foyle, whose status is listed as unknown, worked at the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham from 1952 to 1953.
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