By Chuck Goudie
ABC 7 [Arkansas]
May 16, 2006
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=investigative&id=4178882
May 16, 2006 - Bishop Imesch's replacement is James Peter Sartain, who currently runs the diocese in Little Rock, Arkansas. He will oversee a diocese still struggling with priest sex abuse cases, lawsuits and questions about how the hierarchy has handled them. This Intelligence Report looks at how the new bishop may respond.
If you have never heard of Bishop Sartain, don't feel uninformed. The editor at our ABC affiliate in Little Rock didn't know the bishop was leaving and said he was rarely covered by reporters.
That could be because the diocese that covers the entire state of Arkansas has been almost unscathed by the priest sex abuse scandal, according to the bishop himself, who now finds himself consumed by questions about how he will handle one of the most troubled dioceses in the nation.
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"I would be more able to answer that question after I'm here, since I'm not familiar enough to give a good answer," Sartain said Tuesday.
A promise to follow church rules is as specific as the new bishop would be when asked how he planned to deal with clergy sex abuse.
While he was in Little Rock, Bishop Sartain followed US Bishop's Conference rules that called for a review of all abuse allegations. Sartain says the diocesan investigation covered the years 1950 into the 80's. Eleven priests were been accused of abusing 18 minors, representing only 2 percent of Arkansas' priests.
"We have to look at both sides. If there is a victim or potential victim, we have to love them and make them feel great concern and compassion of the church," Sartain said.
During Sartain's tenure in Arkansas, the I-Team has learned that he was a defendant in a child sex abuse lawsuit filed in federal court against a priest who had worked in the diocese long before Sartain arrived. The victim sued for a million dollars, alleging that in 1965 a brother at a religious school had "unpermitted, harmful and offensive sexual conduct upon him" when he was 10 years old. The victim claimed that the church moved him across state lines in retaliation for disclosure of rape.
Bishop Sartain was named only because he was the current leader of the Little Rock diocese. The federal suit was eventually dismissed not on the merits, but because the statute of limitations had run out.
Bishop Sartain hails from Memphis, Tennessee, where he was a parish priest after ordination in 1978. Even though he held several top diocesan positions here, he was far from a household name.
A fire at this a church in 1996 did put Sartain into the news when it was discovered that the fire was arson and a parish priest set it. When Father Fred Sauer pleaded guilty and was sent to prison, he was walked out of court by his friend, then Father Sartain, now the bishop of Joliet.
Tuesday, ABC7'S Ben Bradley asked him why he thinks he was promoted on May 2.
Attempts to reach Bishop Sartain Tuesday afternoon regarding the Arkansas lawsuit were unsuccessful. The alleged victim in the case has also not responded.
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Chicago's Cardinal Francis George praised the pope's selection of Bishop Sartain and said that Sartain is "well prepared to join the bishops of Illinois in strengthening the mission of the Catholic church in our state."
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