Sex Abuse: the Leader of the Diocese of San Bernardino Is Included in the Wisconsin Lawsuit
By Michael Fisher
Press-Enterprise [San Bernardino CA]
October 6, 2006
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_bishop07.70ceca.html
The family of a slain Wisconsin man has sued Bishop Gerald Barnes of the Diocese of San Bernardino and 176 other Roman Catholic bishops in an unprecedented lawsuit intended to force the church leaders to reveal the names and addresses of an estimated 5,000 sexually abusive priests.
The lawsuit, described as the first of its kind in scope, was filed in St. Croix County, Wis., and targets all bishops and archbishops who run dioceses in the United States, as well as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Some legal experts question whether a state court would have jurisdiction over church leaders from throughout the country.
San Bernardino Diocese officials noted that they supplied the names of 20 accused Inland priests to authorities in April 2002 as the growing clergy-abuse scandal engulfed the Catholic Church. The names were not released publicly. Four were active priests who were removed from ministry, and some were defrocked or dead.
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The Rev. Howard Lincoln, the diocesan spokesman, declined to discuss specifics of the lawsuit. But he said the Inland diocese has been very public in its outreach to potential victims of sexual abuse, both within and outside the church.
"This outreach has included numerous occasions when we announced to parishes the names of individuals accused of sexual abuse, and we have invited and continue to invite any abuse victims to come forward," said Lincoln, whose diocese encompasses Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
He declined to comment as to why the diocese does not want to publicly release the names of Inland priests who were accused, admitted or proven to have been sexually abusive.
To date, 25 Inland priests have been accused of molesting 38 children in Riverside and San Bernardino counties between 1950 and 2002, according to a bishops' 2004 study. Former priest Jesus Armando Dominguez faces criminal charges but has left the country.
The new lawsuit against the nation's bishops was filed last month by relatives of Dan O'Connell, a funeral home owner who was shot to death in 2002 with his employee, James Ellison, 22. A judge determined in 2005 that O'Connell's pastor, the Rev. Ryan Erickson, had killed the two men after O'Connell confronted the priest over suspicions that the cleric was molesting children.
Erickson, 31, committed suicide in 2004, hanging himself at his church after police questioned him about the slayings.
O'Connell's brother, Tom, alleges that Wisconsin church leaders know of Erickson's history of suspected abuse.
Tom O'Connell said the lawsuit does not seek monetary damages but is intended to protect children and the community by forcing bishops to reveal the names and locations of an estimated 5,000 abusive priests, a tally from a 2002 study commissioned by the bishops' conference.
"We just want to make something good come out of this double murder," said O'Connell, who described his family as devout Catholics. "We are talking about the reform in the church."
He acknowledged that Barnes had no direct connection to Erickson or the slayings. But he argues that the killings were preventable if the nation's bishops had confronted the sexual scandal openly and released the names of abusive priests such as Erickson.
O'Connell's attorney, Jeffrey Anderson, said the family is accusing the bishops and the conference of failing to warn the public about abusive priests living in their midst.
"Nothing like this has been attempted," Anderson said of the lawsuit.
He expects the bishops to challenge whether a circuit judge in Wisconsin has authority over them. But he argues that much like a business that sells a dangerously defective product, the bishops have acted together to disseminate information about the church's response to the abuse crisis across the country, including in Wisconsin.
Clare Pastore, a visiting law professor at USC, said she is skeptical whether bishops outside Wisconsin could be forced to defend themselves in a court in that state. The O'Connells will have to show each bishop had some minimal contacts within the state, she said.
"They have some significant procedural hurdles before they ever get to the merits of their case," Pastore said.
Officials of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national self-help and victim-advocacy group, also called the lawsuit a first. The group has tried to persuade Catholic leaders to identify abusive priests publicly.
"It's the quickest, cheapest and best way to both protect vulnerable kids and heal wounded adults," said David Clohessy, the group's national director. "I think bishops can't even pretend that there will be real healing until there is full disclosure."
William Ryan, spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he could not comment directly on the pending litigation. But he said conference representatives have met with the O'Connells in Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin.
Ryan said bishops met in 2002 to approve sweeping reforms that require dioceses to remove sexually abusive priests permanently and to report abuse accusations to civil authorities.
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