BishopAccountability.org
	Records Show Ex-Bishop Didn't Warn of Abuse Claims The Associated Press, carried in Louisville Courier-Journal [Lexington KY] March 5, 2006 http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=232184&c=87 LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A former Covington bishop didn't warn parishioners about an alleged sexually abusive priest and gave the priest high marks in a letter to another Roman Catholic official, according to unsealed court records. The former bishop, Richard H. Ackerman, was informed that the priest -- the Rev. John B. Modica -- was an alleged pedophile who preyed on boys, according to the records. Parents urged church officials to stop the Lexington priest but were ignored. The court records, hidden from view for decades, were made public Friday. The Lexington Herald-Leader and one of Modica's alleged victims, Sam Greywolf of Lexington, had asked Fayette Circuit Judge Mary Noble to unseal them. The diocese said it would no longer object to their release. Modica, who is now retired and lives in Northern Kentucky, declined to comment. Ackerman died in 1992. The Covington Diocese, which included Lexington until 1988, has agreed to settle a separate class-action lawsuit for up to $85 million with sexual abuse victims. More than 350 people are seeking restitution. The diocese has settled many other claims. Greywolf, 48, filed suit with a large group of victims in 2002. He was the only one who did not settle with the diocese. Modica was assistant pastor at Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary Church from 1974 to 1978. In court papers, Greywolf accuses Modica of giving him wine and marijuana and then raping him in the fall of 1974. The court records show that the church was warned repeatedly about Modica. In a letter to Ackerman dated June 17, 1975, Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary pastor Leonard Nienaber wrote: "Last Tuesday Father Modica did 'something' with a 12-year-old boy. The mother cannot get the boy to tell everything yet. An older boy in the family may get him to talk. This older boy was a bit vehement with me because (another priest) had 'attacked' him a few years ago. It seems to me that I heard that Fr. Modica had trouble with boys in Maysville and was another reason for leaving." Nienaber, who himself was later convicted on 10 counts of child sexual abuse, assured Ackerman that Modica's misconduct was being kept "quiet and will cause no public scandal." In a letter dated Dec. 13, 1978, Nienaber warned that Modica had smuggled marijuana eight times to one inmate at the Kentucky State Reformatory near La Grange and was writing "homosexual letters" to another convict. In addition, an altar boy had complained about Modica's alleged sexual advances. "I had a difficult time with those parents who insisted that I have (Modica) removed," Nienaber wrote. Diocesan officials finally sent Modica to Jemez Springs, N.M., in January 1979 "to get treatment for sexual misconduct" -- but only after Modica was caught smuggling marijuana into a state prison. In a letter, Ackerman asked the judge handling Modica's case to allow the priest to travel to New Mexico for treatment because "it is not possible to find any place in Kentucky which would offer the rehabilitation that this unhappy priest requires." The facility helps priests "who, for one reason or another, have failed in their ministry," Ackerman wrote. He did not tell the judge that children had been victimized or that Modica was being sent there to receive treatment for sexual misconduct. Despite Modica's history, Ackerman gave him high marks in a Jan. 23, 1979, letter to another church official. Conceding that Modica at times exhibited "extremely bad judgment," Ackerman added, "Father Modica has been a good priest and enjoys the esteem of the clergy of our Diocese."
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