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	Accused Priests Given Choice The Journal News [New York] September 1, 2006 http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060901/NEWS02/609010331/1018/NEWS02 A small number of New York priests suspected of sexually abusing minors has been given the option of entering a lifelong supervision program or leaving the priesthood, according to the New York Archdiocese. Since June, seven priests have been presented with the choice, and five of the men have chosen to leave the priesthood, said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for Cardinal Edward Egan. All seven previously had their cases heard by the Vatican, which kicked them back to Egan for resolution. The two priests who chose not to leave the priesthood are expected to spend their lives in closely supervised housing, where they will undergo therapy and maintain a daily log of their movements. These men will not be permitted to say Mass in public, dress as priests, be alone with children or "inappropriately use computers," according to a letter sent to the priests by Egan. The two men will live temporarily at Trinity Retreat House in Larchmont before being moved to permanent housing. Trinity Retreat is run by the archdiocese and has long offered spiritual retreats for active priests and special programs for priests battling alcoholism and other personal problems. As of early last year, about two dozen priests of the archdiocese had been removed from ministry because of allegations that they sexually abused minors. All had their cases considered by a lay review board of the archdiocese before being forwarded to the Vatican. Eight of these priests were defrocked last year by the Vatican and identified by the archdiocese. The seven who were given the choice of leaving the priesthood or entering the supervision program also had their cases heard by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Vatican decided not to involuntarily defrock them, in some cases because of their age, instead leaving it up to Egan to decide how to deal with them. Before the new program, Zwilling said, suspected abusers who had been barred from functioning as priests but not defrocked had been allowed great freedom. They were required only to notify the archdiocese where they were living. "We, through our own process, have come to the conclusion that we believe that these men cannot be returned to ministry, and therefore we have to find something to do with them," Zwilling said. Zwilling did not identify the seven, but said they include men who were removed from ministry before the public sex-abuse scandal of 2001 and men who were removed more recently. He said Monsignor Charles Kavanagh, a former vicar of development for the archdiocese who was removed from ministry in 2002, was not among the seven. The Vatican decided early this year that Kavanagh would be given a trial before a panel of priests in the Diocese of Erie, Pa., but the trial is still not scheduled. Victims advocates said the new policy could help protect the church from liability, but worried that the priests who decide to leave could be a risk to children. "Unleashing them on society is not the responsible thing to do," said the Rev. John P. Bambrick, a priest in the Trenton, N.J., Diocese who says he was abused as a youth by a priest and who is now an advocate for victims. The church says it refers any allegations that could result in a prosecution to law-enforcement officials, but in many old cases, the statute of limitations has run out. It is unclear how common such programs are. Officials at the Chicago Archdiocese said nine priests accused of sex abuse live in a retreat house on the grounds of a seminary and are carefully monitored. "There are several other dioceses that have similar programs, but unfortunately, none of them are willing to talk about it," said William Ryan, a spokesman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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